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Rating: 
Summary: Lacks visual appeal of textbook version
Review: A great new addition to the selection of textbooks for introductory classes on ancient Greece. Pomeroy and her co-authors attempt to give the reader as much information about the history and people of ancient Greece that can be fit into a backpack sized book. However, some instructors may disagree with a few interpretations of the events and people but should look at this as an opportunity to give students a different view.
Rating: 
Summary: Easy to read & informative. Great overall history.
Review: Despite a few irritating editorial glitches, this book fills an important void for those trying to integrate greek classical literature with historical and social science insight. Even if you know much of the period, reading this book will give periodic nuggets of information, and gems of integrative insight. The novice, non-technical reader will find this the best overall introduction available.
Rating: 
Summary: is history science?
Review: I found the book poor when it comes to the critical evaluation
of modern archaeological findings. I do not recommend it.
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Summary: maybe best afordable text, but marred by committee-speak
Review: I've used this text in my Greek Civilization course and I find that it has a wide range of material and reflects the latest trends in scholarship. For some courses I prefer Demand's History of Ancient Greece because it is more concise and better written--the short chapters give me more freedom to assign original Greek texts. But the price for that small text is outrageous!The reason I'm provoked to write this review is I'm looking over the reading I assigned my students for today. See Pomeroy p. 246, the first paragraph on the Peloponnesian War, beginning "Avoiding war was particularly important when the Greeks has such precious achievements to protect in so many areas." The paragraph goes downhill from there. A horrible, scattered introduction which does nothing to convey why this central episode of Greek history was so important to the Greeks and retains its importance today. On many occasions the blah prose of this text renders the most interesting moments of Greek history dull and soporific.
Rating:
Summary: I can't put down enough praise.
Review: Luckily, this was the first book I ever read about Ancient Greece and I feel very fortuneate about it. Book is very comprehensive in many ways, and it is both extremely entertaining as well as informative. There is just about everything you need to know. I had fragments of information that I have gathered through out my life and this book just filled the missing gap. This book did not just lay facts, but had various parables and also had interesting references from many other sources. It want into details of many lives and I learned about Alexander the Great, Plato, about Sparta and contrasting Athens and more. This book is quite long but never boring, and you can read it like any other fiction books. Some topics will interest you more and will lead you to other books. In my case I have bought Plutarch's lives.
Rating:
Summary: I can't put down enough praise.
Review: Luckily, this was the first book I ever read about Ancient Greece and I feel very fortuneate about it. Book is very comprehensive in many ways, and it is both extremely entertaining as well as informative. There is just about everything you need to know. I had fragments of information that I have gathered through out my life and this book just filled the missing gap. This book did not just lay facts, but had various parables and also had interesting references from many other sources. It want into details of many lives and I learned about Alexander the Great, Plato, about Sparta and contrasting Athens and more. This book is quite long but never boring, and you can read it like any other fiction books. Some topics will interest you more and will lead you to other books. In my case I have bought Plutarch's lives.
Rating: 
Summary: Sacrifices detail; no original research.
Review: This is not a terrible book. It is OK, perhaps pretty good. Let us discuss its virtues: it is clear and simple. There are many pretty pictures, most of which are well-chosen. Unlike many things I have read in the ancient world recently (such as the Oxford Classical Dictionary's awful definition of pornography) the political correctness is quite intelligent, bridled, and well-balanced, not strident or out of control at all. The authors even take the "Goddess" school to task, gently pointing out that, pace the Merlin Stone and Gimbutas School, the view that Old Europe once together worshipped a female goddess is out of style. I like that, and I like the generally balanced viewpoints on many things: it's not too left wing, not terribly right wing. It takes into account recent observations without becoming crippled by an orthodox postmodernism, either.
That was the good part. Here's the bad part. It's bland. Clear, yes: but bland. Second, most of its clarity derives from its refusal to give specifics. The book is truly aimed for highschoolers, not college students. (Perhaps junior college in California: I'll compromise.) Compare it with Raphael Sealey's excellent "A History of the Greek City States" on any section -- take Peisistratus for an example. True, Sealey doesn't have chapters entitled "Women in Greece," but he certainly has done his own research rather than blandly blending the research of others. That's the biggest problem with this book: it bears the mark of a general general textbook seven generations from any original research.
It's not horrible. It would be quite suitable, for example , for my mother or your grandmother or someone like that who has little college education. The pictures are pretty; it moves along fine, though sacrificing detail greatly. It's much too expensive for a cheap paperback, though. Perhaps the expense is the pictures: it's certainly not the fine writing or original research.
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