Rating: 
Summary: Yes, The Near East is in!
Review: I am delighted that Tammy Jo and the other reviewer enjoyed my book. However(see TammyJo's review) the Near East is in, the whole of Chapter Five. After the area was taken over by the Greeks and Romans I deal with it in 'their' chapters. OUP and I worked hard to make this book as comprehensive as possible because there has been a real gap in the market which this book is designed to fill. Good reading. Charles Freeman
Rating: 
Summary: author promotes a real "classical" education
Review: I knew when I read the first page I had found THE book to prepare myself to teach a course on ancient history to my homeschooled children. "The training in taste and accuracy and thought, that lucid if somewhat factitious understanding of human institutions and human nature, which a close acquaintance with the Greek and Roman authors could give, were considered to fit the young supremely for the conduct of life. Those who had undergone the rigours of the traditional Humanist (ie classical) discipline in school and university were accepted by the majority of their contemporaries as an authoritative elite." In my home, we use the classical education model to promote in our children more rigorous analytical skills, mental discipline, and a wealth of knowledge about the world we live in. Charles Freeman has produced an excellent book to pass on the knowledge of the ancients (how to organize a community... a persons obligations to society vs family.. etc) that may be helpful to citizens of the 3rd millenium as we face the same ancient problems and see what has been tried before.
Rating:
Summary: author promotes a real "classical" education
Review: I knew when I read the first page I had found THE book to prepare myself to teach a course on ancient history to my homeschooled children. "The training in taste and accuracy and thought, that lucid if somewhat factitious understanding of human institutions and human nature, which a close acquaintance with the Greek and Roman authors could give, were considered to fit the young supremely for the conduct of life. Those who had undergone the rigours of the traditional Humanist (ie classical) discipline in school and university were accepted by the majority of their contemporaries as an authoritative elite." In my home, we use the classical education model to promote in our children more rigorous analytical skills, mental discipline, and a wealth of knowledge about the world we live in. Charles Freeman has produced an excellent book to pass on the knowledge of the ancients (how to organize a community... a persons obligations to society vs family.. etc) that may be helpful to citizens of the 3rd millenium as we face the same ancient problems and see what has been tried before.
Rating: 
Summary: Decent History of Three Great Civilizations
Review: I liked the idea of a book that includes the three great Mediterranean civilizations. The book is not too detailed and serves well as a survey, especially for novices to the subject. The book could have had a little better editing for things such as punctuation (many commas were missing where they could have made reading more easier) and better use of the words "which" and "that."
Rating:
Summary: A superb introduction to the history of the period
Review: If you are constantly confused by this period of history, this is the book for you. It puts into context, the whole shape of the era. It makes you realise that someone like Cleopatra is closer to our time than the beginnings of Egyptian history. I have read the whole book through and it is a superb narrative. This is no mean feat, for if you where to write a history of the United States from Columbus to the present, it would be close to a third of the time that he covers. You can start to see the relationship between the writers of the period and the politicians. You can begin to way each period is interlocked with the next. But more than that, you can look up any period and be given a succint description to help you through.My only regret was that this book was not published years earlier. I cannot recommend a book more highly.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent introduction to an enormous subject
Review: Many histories of this period respond to the lack of known detail about what happened by spending all their time droning on about social history. I wanted an narrative introduction to Greek and Roman history and this is it. The addition of Egypt is a welcome bonus. If you don't know your Marathon from your Issus, your Pompey from Ptolomy then this is the book for you. It serves as the ideal jumping off point to examine the particular areas that really spark your interest.
Rating:
Summary: Big book-big resource
Review: One word--AWESOME! A book over 600 pages--this is a great deal as well as a wonderful rsource to any library! You can look up any ancient civilization from Mesopotamipa to Rome to Greece to China, etc. ALL the information is is this one book--look no further, I found everything I need for my research report in this one book!
Rating:
Summary: This is the book I have been looking for
Review: Over the last few years I have gotten interested in the sources of the ideas of our current world. For instance, when reading about Jefferson, Adams and people that founded the US I find they are fluent in Latin and Greek and read the classics extensively. I have read the Histories, the Pelloponesian Wars, much of Plutarch and survey books I could find and though I found the stories interesting I have been groping for some context. I felt like one of the blind men and the elephant, only apprehending the little piece I was in contact with and not having any idea what a whole elephant is like. I came across this book by looking through ...(this very place) and it looked like it would give me an overall structure. The book succeeded beyond my expectations. Starting with Egypt and ending with the Byzantine Empire it covers the myriad civilizations around the Mediterranean during that period. It puts Solon and Dracon into their context. It explains how the Etruscians related to the Greek civilization, and then to Roman. It discusses the Phoenecians, the Latins, the Gauls, the Celts and all the various people that interacted with the Romans as their empire expanded and then the Germans, Huns and other that became important as their empire declined. Much of what we know about the ancient world is relatively new because excavations are ongoing and techniques are improving. Besides that our thinking aout the ancient world is evolving as well. This book trys to understand the period it covers not just from the point of view of the wealthy, literate folks that wrote the classics, but from the point of view of craftsmen, farmers and slaves as well. This is definately the book I had been looking for to get me started learning about the influence the past has had on the present. I may not know yet what the elephant of ancient history smells like because I have not been that close, but I have a pretty good idea what it looks like thanks to this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but lacking coherence
Review: This book covers Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome in three multi-chapter sections and covers the Ancient Near East, the Hellenistic world after Alexander, and Europian "barbarians" in single chapters. The main topics--Egypt, Greece, and Rome--are, I think, treated quite separately, so there is no great advantage besides convenience to grouping them in one book. I believe that the Ancient Near East--particularly the Persians and Jews--should have been a primary focus, and probably Egypt should not have. The Persian Wars and the rise of Christianity had huge impacts on Rome and Greece, and much of Greek culture was derived from Eastern culture. Ancient Eqypt was a unique and remarkable civilization but it was relatively isolated, and certainly it is possible to understand Greece and Rome without understanding Egypt. The basic flaw of this book is that the chapters aren't tied together and that it has no overarching vision. For example, a theme like the similarities between the Eastern, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman religions because of assimilation would have been very interesting and enlightening I think, but there is little of it. The writing is a bit prosaic, though in general this book is written well. You can learn a lot from this book, but it is difficult to remember it all since it is too much a compendium of facts and too little a coherent story.
Rating:
Summary: Good but lacking coherence
Review: This book covers Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome in three multi-chapter sections and covers the Ancient Near East, the Hellenistic world after Alexander, and Europian "barbarians" in single chapters. The main topics--Egypt, Greece, and Rome--are, I think, treated quite separately, so there is no great advantage besides convenience to grouping them in one book. I believe that the Ancient Near East--particularly the Persians and Jews--should have been a primary focus, and probably Egypt should not have. The Persian Wars and the rise of Christianity had huge impacts on Rome and Greece, and much of Greek culture was derived from Eastern culture. Ancient Eqypt was a unique and remarkable civilization but it was relatively isolated, and certainly it is possible to understand Greece and Rome without understanding Egypt. The basic flaw of this book is that the chapters aren't tied together and that it has no overarching vision. For example, a theme like the similarities between the Eastern, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman religions because of assimilation would have been very interesting and enlightening I think, but there is little of it. The writing is a bit prosaic, though in general this book is written well. You can learn a lot from this book, but it is difficult to remember it all since it is too much a compendium of facts and too little a coherent story.
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