Reviews
The Rise and Fall of Alexandria: Birthplace of the Modern Mind by Howard Reid, Justin Pollard
eroston's review against another edition
Got what I needed from it, and in a hurry.
thomaswright94's review against another edition
4.0
A good introduction to one of the most fascinating cities of the ancient world. Alexandria is shown here to be at the centre of the ancient world when it came to intellect, science and trade. While this was a little dry at times in this book it was interesting nonetheless to see this development play out. It would have been interesting to have more chapters on the city post Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt.
rcgrimes's review against another edition
5.0
This book was great. It shows the importance of knowledge and how we have to save it at all costs. The book explains the growth of a great city and library and the minds it helped nurture. The city was a growth spot for all future learning centers, as well as for religion. It is also a lesson on how we can destroy all that we honor and use it against ourselves.
kahawa's review against another edition
4.0
This was great, better than I was expecting. I can't give it 5 stars, because I'm not a big fan of this style of historical narrative which treats sources overly credulously. Sometimes sources were given, or mention was made of a source's credibility, but usually the authors simply wrote their history as though it was the unquestioned history. This is a common flaw in especially older works of history.
But apart from that, it was well-written and covered a lot of different people and events. I knew that Alexandria was a significant city in the past, but I didn't realise how significant, and influential on the direction that history has taken. It sounds like this city, after Athens and Rome, or perhaps along side of them, was the most influential city on earth, rising to prominence around ~300BC, and dominating events for a thousand years, before fading into the gloom of insignificance. I can't get over the library, and what's been lost. It kills me.
I also didn't realise how incredibly significant Alexandria was to the early development of Christianity. Outside of Jerusalem, and prior to Rome, Alexandria was the birthplace of Christianity.
It's amazing how developed the ancient world was. They had detailed maps of Europe, up through Wales, already in the 2nd century. Science was blossoming (they'd calculated the circumference of the earth), philosophy was highly sophisticated, engineering rivalled feats not repeated till the 19th century. There was so much learning, and travel, and progress. What could have killed all that? What kind of superstitious backward authoritarian belief system could have come in and dominated the Mediterranean and hijacked the amazing trajectory of progress that had started?
But apart from that, it was well-written and covered a lot of different people and events. I knew that Alexandria was a significant city in the past, but I didn't realise how significant, and influential on the direction that history has taken. It sounds like this city, after Athens and Rome, or perhaps along side of them, was the most influential city on earth, rising to prominence around ~300BC, and dominating events for a thousand years, before fading into the gloom of insignificance. I can't get over the library, and what's been lost. It kills me.
I also didn't realise how incredibly significant Alexandria was to the early development of Christianity. Outside of Jerusalem, and prior to Rome, Alexandria was the birthplace of Christianity.
It's amazing how developed the ancient world was. They had detailed maps of Europe, up through Wales, already in the 2nd century. Science was blossoming (they'd calculated the circumference of the earth), philosophy was highly sophisticated, engineering rivalled feats not repeated till the 19th century. There was so much learning, and travel, and progress. What could have killed all that? What kind of superstitious backward authoritarian belief system could have come in and dominated the Mediterranean and hijacked the amazing trajectory of progress that had started?
mactammonty's review
5.0
An easily understood history of Alexandria, it's builders, it's influences and how it has shaped today's world.
spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition
2.0
Cities in and of themselves don't tend to be very interesting, and I was initially very sympathetic when this book veered away from the history of Alexandria itself into a fun and exciting guestbook of every notable visitor to the undeniably important but exhaustingly overrated Great Library. I did not learn very much new information from this book; the intended audience is certainly laypersons. If you're interested in learning a bit about why Alexandria was such an important city in Western classical antiquity, this book is fine. There are a handful of errors, most of which aren't incredibly important, although some are problematic, such as when the book claims that Copernicus originally referenced the supposed "impiety" of Aristarchus's theory of heliocentrism in his De revolutionibus, a misconception born of a bad translation which is so unfortunately prevalent that it has its own section of Aristarchus's English-language Wikipedia page.
witchofthemountains's review against another edition
5.0
I'll admit a little bit of bias: I am one of those people who still gets misty-eyed when I think about the loss of Alexandria's library and the knowledge stored there.
Most of what I knew about Alexandria and its library came from "common knowledge". Which is to say that I didn't know very much! This book covered everything from the founding of the city to its ultimate downfall at the hands of several forms of extremism. It's a timely warning, given the political and social climate shifts that are currently happening.
The book itself does an excellent job of summing up an expansive history. It dives a little bit into the theories and ideas that helped propel Alexandria's fame without getting too bogged down in side-stories. It's an excellent head-first dive into the history of Alexandria that can help people find new and interesting places to sink their teeth into Egyptian history.
Most of what I knew about Alexandria and its library came from "common knowledge". Which is to say that I didn't know very much! This book covered everything from the founding of the city to its ultimate downfall at the hands of several forms of extremism. It's a timely warning, given the political and social climate shifts that are currently happening.
The book itself does an excellent job of summing up an expansive history. It dives a little bit into the theories and ideas that helped propel Alexandria's fame without getting too bogged down in side-stories. It's an excellent head-first dive into the history of Alexandria that can help people find new and interesting places to sink their teeth into Egyptian history.
regferk's review against another edition
4.0
It breaks my heart every time. The over taking by religious extremism snuffing out the lights of civilization hits a little close to home right now.