Reviews

Ancient Greece: A New History by Jeremy McInerney

amydiddle's review

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informative slow-paced

3.75

cbess's review

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informative medium-paced

4.0

you know what? it was a good textbook, not particularly riveting, but i got through it without too much pain

missmarketpaperback's review

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5.0

I read this book as preparation for exams as I am a graduate student in Classics. I thought the chapters on prehistoric Greece were masterful, with great references to recent excavations. Some chapters fell into traditional narratives, but I think it’s somewhat impossible to avoid that. McInerney has firm opinions about certain ongoing debates that I would say could have been presented more even-handedly. Additionally, the author underscores the end of the Classical period as destruction, which is a little reductive, and, when discussing the fragility of classical heritage, mentions the destruction of Palmyra but not the appropriation of this heritage by white supremacists and/or fascists. Overall, I’d say this was an excellent history and I would teach with it happily.
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