Eastern Asia and Classical Greece (The Illustrated History of the World, Volume 2)

Rating:
Summary: A nice addition to a wonderful series
Review: This book is the second volume in the wonderful Illustrated History of the World Series. This one quickly covers the ancient world up to the rise of the Persian Empire. After that, the book launches into a wonderful, in-depth look at ancient Greece from earliest history to the Hellenic Empire. Along the way, the reader is treated to many colorful maps and pictures, and interesting sidebars.

This book is very good, and a nice addition to a wonderful series. I found the book to be very informative and quite interesting. Overall, I liked the book, and highly recommend it as an introduction to Classical Greece.

Rating:
Summary: Well-Written and Beautifully Illustrated Introduction
Review: This is volume two of a ten volume series called The Illustrated History of the World. The first volume covered the origins of the human race through the first civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. This second volume in the series is in two parts. The first part reviews the early cultures of India and China and the second part moves on to discuss Greek civilization. Each part stands alone being a section of the ten-volume work, and are included together just to make up a book-length unit.

The book is filled with beautiful color illustrations. Every page has at least one and most are photographs of artifacts, art works, or scenes. The text is well written and emphasizes broad summaries rather than scholarly examination. This makes it a good basic introduction and outline, but may be less useful to someone who wants to look at these subjects in greater depth. The lack of any bibliography of further readings is also a drawback for those wanting to seek more information. A two-page time chart of the period helps to put events in perspective. The chapter contents are confusingly placed at the end of the book, but they are well done and helpful for getting an overview of the author's approach. A two page listing of all the books in the series with their section and chapter titles helps to put the material into the broader view of all world history.

The type face is large and the lines are amply spaced. Couple this with the copious illustrations and the book is actually a very quick read for its size and length. It is a few steps above the approach of Dorling Kindersley books that are predominately illustrations with supporting text. With Roberts, the text is the major part, but the illustrations are definitely more than an after thought. This is a good introduction for the general reader. It is not going to be a lasting reference book that you will turn to again and again. Read it once and move on.