Rating: 
Summary: A good historical overview of ancient Greece in 221 pages
Review: Thomas Martin has provided the general reader with an excellent historical survey of ancient Greece, which emphasizes not only the political history, but also the cultural and social developments through the ages.The purpose of this work is to give the reader a brief overview, and then to allow him/her to choose what topics to study in more detail. In this regard, "Ancient Greece" does a brilliant job. In this situation, having a good bibliography is critical, and "Ancient Greece" does not fail. In my opinion, the annotated biliography at the end of the book is quite extensive and was designed for the general reader in mind. Thus, given this excellent feature of the book, the author effectively designed this book for a general audience. Additionally, I thought that the timelines and maps that were provided in the book were outstanding aids in helping to learn the material in the text. Hooray for Thomas Martin!
Rating:
Summary: So you want to know about the Greeks?
Review: Well trust me, this is the place to start. Martin's book is concise (unlike the numerous 3000 page books history students often have to toil through), thorough, and relaxed. If you are in a history class in college, don't buy that 4 million page book your professor is assigning. Buy this one instead. It has all the same info (enough to give you a A on a very intense essay exam), and is about 1/100 the size, thus leaving you time to enjoy your college life, and to therefore drink a lot of wine--leading to a very well-balanced life that the Greeks would surely approve of!! So this is the main advantage of this book: You can learn everything you ever wanted to know about the Greeks, but you don't have to kill the excitement of the subject in the oppressive details that most history books toil over. Instead you have a good story of the dawn of our civilization, with nice illustrations, and a relaxed mood throughout...
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