Greece Books

After seeing a biographical show about Christina Onassis, I became intrigued about the tragic life of one of the world's wealthiest women and picked up this book at my local library.

I was very impressed with the way it was written. I began to wonder if Mr. Dempster was her shadow her whole life, for the depth of knowledge was practically disconcerting. It was a fast - moving book with plenty of clarity, maybe a bit too fast - moving, because I read all 170 pages in about three broken-up hours or so.

I would have been interested in knowing a bit more about her daughter, Athina, considering that she was actually a large part of her late mother's last few years upon earth. I understand completely it's rather difficult to be creative and offbeat when it comes to a nonfiction work, but the ending could have been better worked. A bit of a post - mortem chapter would have ended the book better, maybe discussing the obituaries written about Christina, or maybe describing what would happen in regards to her inheritance to her daughter. It seemed too callous to end it with something along the lines of "Yeah, her friends all went home. The end."

I enjoyed all three hours of this book overall. :)

Hirschon's book gives an account of the social life of the Asia Minor refugees. As a student of the classics I was impressed by the parallels with ancient Greek culture (although I won't make any grand claims about continuity over the millenia because I don't know very much about the intermediate history). A very good book if you're interested in learning about the traditional Greek lifestyle. Challenges the notion that urban/modern life and traditional/religious life are necessarily opposed. Because the population of Greece was so radically increased by the influx of refugees from Asia Minor (which destroyed continuity of Greek inhabitation of Asia Minor going back to antiquity) it is one of the most important events in modern Greek history. One of the strongest points of the book, I think, is the extensive quoting of phrases Hirschon heard uttered by the people on the street, often with the modern greek alongside her translation. These little sayings give a lot of insight into how the refugees made sense of their world, and are often pithy and enjoyable in their own right.

I recommend, buy this book even if you have no relation with any photographic profession. Represents Hellas (populary known as greece) in one of the best ways ever. Antiquities, blue skies (prints are duotones, but colors you can imagine them),and some people living in areas of Hellenic country. The shots took place only a few time before 2nd world war, by the german photographer Herbert List. He wandered almost all over Hellas (or at least in most important hellenic temples of modern Hellenic Antiquity (5-15 centuries before christ.) --- --- --- If you live under Acropoli in Athina, Parthenonas is a building like all the others...because you see it everyday. If you see it on these pictures..you will be surprised by its glory far more.
PS.I have to mention that in greece's biggest bookstore I was unable to buy this cheaper edition...even after trying to order it..and they could supply me only with the hard cover version of 65euro. Isn't it a pity..isn't it a shame...? Besides...it is about Hellas.

The classical history book on classical Greece / Hellenic history - in depth, detailed. Used at University of California undergrad Greek History once when I graduated, and still used in the 2000s by my children in their UC college class. Authoritarian but readable.

This book, complete with extremely useful maps and illustrations, covers the entire sweep of Greek history, placing in context the classical and Helenic periods historians and laymen know from normally out-of-context sources. Highly recommended reading that is colorful and, a big bonus, extremely entertaining at the same time. Do chose this book, if you want this important history to no longer be "Greek" to you.

I really wanted to give this book a bad review. Bowersock has some truly screwy ideas about Late Antiquity (see below). But I just had to give this book five stars for three reasons: (1) Bowersock is an excellent writer, (2) he knows his stuff, (3) he writes about things that, at least to me, are fascinating and important.

This book covers that period of history called "Late Antiquity". This is a euphamism for the time when the Roman Empire simultaneously became Christian and fell apart. Of course only the western part of the empire completely fell apart as soon as it became Christian - while the eastern part (which is what Bowersock is primarily interested in) simply entered into a prolonged irreversible decline.

The book begins with a look at John of Ephesus - a mid 6th century Christian missionary in western Anatolia who was horrified to find 1500 (by his estimate) active Pagan places of worship. To make things even worse, these Temples and shrines all sent representatives to study and "receive the law" at a central main Temple. Like this story, much of the book has a "regional" focus, and Bowersock's main thesis is that "Hellenistic" culture had made itself right at home throughout large parts of "the east" - and that this Hellenism never really replaced the local cultures so much as it became the language through which various local cultures not only expressed themselves, but were able to communicate with each other.

Bowersock is explicitly, and illogically, opposed to the idea that Late Antiquity was characterized by a struggle between Paganism and Christianity. He even goes so far as to promote one of his pet theories (to which he has devoted a whole other book) that Julian's desire to revive Paganism was both ill-conceived and completely at odds with "real" Paganism. Julian, according to Bowersock, was never really a Pagan, but rather a misguided Christian who just tried to create a completely new kind of Paganism that was really nothing but a mirror image of fundamentalist Christianity. In other words Julian was some kind of Late Antique Satanist! Despite Bowersocks loopy ideas about Paganism, this is nevertheless a wonderful little book that provides a wealth of information about some of the ways in which Paganism persisted even as Christianity "triumphed".

This compilation on the Seleucid Empire calls for an interdisciplinary approach to studying the largest of the dynastic empires to follow Alexander The Great. The text is more of a scholarly review addressed primarily to people working in the field of classical studies, archeology, and anthropology. Although perhaps not a book that would be of interest to the casual reader of history, Susan Sherwin-White and Amelie Kurt are two of few historians who have bothered to question the commonly accepted theories as to the evolution of the Seleucid Empire.

Susan Sherwin-White and Amelie Kurt evaluate new findings that were made indicating that the Seleucid Empire was not simply a Greek culture and state that arose out of thin air to impose itself upon the Persian Empire's former subjects. Previous scholars have approached the subject with a flawed paradigm in concluding that Seleucid monarchs reinvented the wheel after Alexander's defeat of Persia by imposing a ruthless policy of colonialism and maintaining a society segregated between Greeks and non-Greeks. As a result, historians have been looking only at artifacts and texts reflecting Greek culture or values to make their conclusions while ignoring everything else. White and Khurt, along with respected scholars such as Erich Gruen, present and interpret new findings in numismatic, archeological, and textual areas to dispute this false paradigm such as cuneiform scripts used by Greeks, architectural fusion of Greek and Eastern styles, etc.

As with their other book 'From Samarkhand to Sardis', this book is a major contribution to the study of the Seleucids as previous scholars such as Tarn simply didn't have the knowledge of the major archeological finds that were uncovered after he published his works in the mid-twentieth century. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is seriously in need of important and recent information on the Seleucid empire. The book is hard to find and I recommend you get it as soon as it becomes available. It's possible that another edition is on the way but that may be long in the future if ever at all. Again, the book is not suited for the casual reader as one would at least need to have a thorough background on Alexander The Great if not Persian and Greek history: the book is primarily targeted towards an academic audience and not the general reader. The book is also expensive at $50+ and not really in the price range of someone who only has a limited interest in the subject. A very good book to go with this one is A. K. Narain's 'Coin Types of the Indo-Greek Kings" that focuses on the Seleucid kingdoms of the Indus valley and Bactria: its several studies focus primarily on numismatic evidence along with archeological and literary sources. The works and theories of the authors as to the development and administration of the Seleucid kingdoms complement each other and therefore make a great pair of books to own.

This book by Norman Davis is a good introduction to the monarchs of the Antigonid, Seleucid, Ptolemic, and Indo-Greek monarchs during the Hellenic period up to the 1st century B.C. A good book that is great for the casual historian in that it has a lot of illustrations and scholarly erudition is kept to a minimum.

The book is actually two parts covering the same subject. The first half of the book provides various photographs of coins in each dynasty or kingdom and the second half provides a summary of those monarchs explaining the period of their rule, their achievements, and their demise. This book is particulary useful in providing basic summaries and time frames for rulers of the Indo-Greek kingdoms as they were numerous and their monarchies usually unstable: there is also little evidence for them other than coins and some classical writers such as Arian.

This is a good introductory book that can be read by casual readers as well as scholars. The book has countless photographs of coins and good summaries of the rulers they portray. I strongly recommend this book.

It's easy to see why this book is still in print: it has intriguing coverage of the origins of Christianity in Hellenistic religion. About a third is Greek. Daring and fun for those who know a few Greek mystery-religion terms.

Doesn't cover mystical Judaism much but does acknowledge that research area -- Goodenough's 1935 book By Light, Light: The Mystic Gospel of Hellenistic Judaism might provide complementary coverage of that.

Julia is a fine scholar and a balanced writer. Her text is a fantastic introduction to Stoic and Epicurean thought.