Reviews (13)

A Wonderful Word Study/Devotional
This book is probably the best devotional I've ever owned! It is written by a man who has a deep knowledge of Greek and who knows God intimately, and his book reveals this. The book is divided into 365 daily readings, each one being just the right length, not too short (which most are) and not too long. Each day's reading begins with a topic and appropriate scripture from the New Testament, which was originally written in Greek. The author goes into great detail as he expands the meaning of the Greek words used in the scriptures, and also includes personal anecdotes (which are so interesting) and lots of encouragement for the reader (which we all need). At the conclusion of the word study are two additional sections: the first is a prayer the reader can pray that relates to the word study for the day, and the second is a declaration of faith relating to the study. At the very end of the day's reading are three questions to the reader to help him go deeper into the day's subject. The reader definitely comes away from the reading with a much deeper understanding of God's Word and how to apply it to his life. It's a wonderful book for not only personal use, but also would be a great gift. I've read several books by Rick Renner, and this is one of my favorites. I highly recommend it!!!

Truly a gem
All concerns about being able to wrap my mind around a Greek word study were put to rest with the first reading of this true gem. In modern day terms this word study is truly best I have ever encounter.Get one for yourself and a friend.What a treasure.

I highly recommend this book!
I like this book very much. I look forward to read this book every day. i learn new things I didn't know and there is a wealth of knowledge in Sparkling Gems. I highly recommend it. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Christianity - General    2. Religion    3. Religion - Church History   

Reviews (36)

CAVEAT: Victor Hanson is NOT a "military" historian.
Victor Hanson is NOT a "military" historian. Hanson is an excellent classical historian - but not a "military" historian. Unfortunately, he has been passing himself off as a "military" historian for years without challenge. After 28+ years of active duty military service, and a personal library of more than 1000 rare ans standard military titles - I find Hanson's "military" analyses highly flawed, shallow, and amateurish at best - and that is exactly what I find again in this book.One should read Hanson for his classical historian abilities - but not for his "military" analyses.
Lessons to Learn
I consider myself very lucky to have found this book right after reading Barry Strauss' history of the battle of Salamis. This work provided me with the subsequent history of Greece after a brief moment when all Greeks were united at Salamis in 480 BC under the brilliant and sly Themistocles to repel the vast Persian hordes and huge naval fleet of the King of Kings, Xerxes.
Organization sets it apart from other histories
Probably the most striking aspect of this book is the way the author chose to organize the history of the war into categories:
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Subjects:  1. 431-404 B.C., Peloponnesian War    2. Ancient - Greece    3. Greece    4. History    5. History - General History    6. History - Military / War    7. History: World    8. Military - Other    9. Military History - Ancient    10. Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C    11. History / Ancient / Greece   

Reviews (11)

Thin and disappointing
Golly, but I feel like the odd man out here. Other reviewers have praised this book highly. To me it was thin in content and pretty uninformative. Maybe there's just not a lot to say about the historical Trojan War. Thus most of Strauss's narrative is a paraphrase of Homer. It is full of silly sidelines like "An unbandaged would might have been a common sight in the Greek camp." As my son would say: "Duh!"
Great book on historical speculation on the trojan war
Mr. Strauss does a great job bringing the bronze age art of war to life.He references many existing sources and some new ones, such as a newly discovered papyrus that show Greek soldiers of the era (The papyrus was stored away in a museum only to be recently discovered. . .makes you think what else is hidden away and lost to us on some dusty shelf). However, I have always been a little leery of a work of fiction being used to exemplify historical knowledge.However if it get people reading about history I can live with it. If this is what MR. Strauss was after then he has accomplished his task.I recommend this book to all historians, lovers of Homer's works and wargammers who would like to recreate the battles of the Iliad.

A Victorious Review
Because of my interest in classics, I was delighted to hear the interview with Barry Strauss on NPR when I was in the car several weeks ago. I ordered his new book right away and have just finished reading it.His scholarly and entertaining account is appealing because his informative descriptions of ancient times are clear, clever, and catchy.How I wish I could be a student in one of this fine professor's classes! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Ancient - Greece    2. History    3. History - Military / War    4. History: World    5. Military - Other    6. Military History - Ancient    7. Trojan War    8. History / Ancient / Greece   

Editorial Review

One measure, perhaps, of a book's worth, is its intergenerational pliancy: do new readers acquire it and interpret it afresh down through the ages? The Read more

Reviews (85)

Wisdom for Today
Meditations of Marcus Aurelius is really a manual for living.So much of what he teaches is very relevant for today."If you don't have a consistent goal in life, you can't live in a consistent way."
meditations
this is the finest translation of marcus aurelius's meditations that i have read. previous translations i have read were loaded with so many thee's and thou's that the reading was tedious and slow. i found my self scanning the pages instead of reading until i would come across an obvious jem. this made me oblivious to the hidden jems that make up this excellent work.this book gives the emperor's words a modern flair that doesn't lose the original flavor. i highly recommend it.

More of a reference
As part of the Dover Thrift Editions, this is a very affordable look into Stoic philosophy and insight into one of the emperors of the Roman Empire.
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Subjects:  1. Ethics    2. General    3. History & Surveys - Ancient & Classical    4. Life    5. Philosophy    6. Stoics    7. Ancient Greek & Roman philosophy    8. Philosophy / General   

Reviews (6)

Can pay for itself
We took a cruise that stopped at 5 islands listed in the book and found the information provided helpful to interpreting the cruise line's descriptions and deciding which land tours to take.We were able to by-pass several expensive tours yet see the major sites on our own.

Love the DK travel guides!
The DK books are my favorite travel guides and even though I've never been to Greece (yet!) I still like to page though the book. The pictures and diagrams are gorgeous and I like how the authors always bring the culture and history of the area into the discussion.

A beautiful, classy, picture journey!
This is a portable, soft cover, coffee-table book!It is beautifully crafted, with exquisite pictures, maps and diagrams of ancient buildings and modern towns. The book takes you on a cultural journey through Greece and its history.If you haven't visited Greece, it's a motivator.If you have, it brings back wonderful memories.This book is a broad sweep, you will need supplemental information, but it is unique in providing a visual overview of a beautiful and enchanting land! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Aegean Islands (Greece and Turkey)    2. Europe - Greece    3. General    4. Guidebooks    5. Ionian Islands (Greece)    6. Travel    7. Travel - Foreign    8. Travel / Europe / Greece   

Reviews (65)

Unchristian
Dalrymple's 1994 reenactment of the 6th century Christian spiritual journey of John Moschos and Sophronios is fascinating, and its author a compelling writer. There, the value of this book ends.
A book transcending itself
A trip through the Middle-East is most of all getting to know the Muslim world. The part of its' history from Byzantine times, meaning the presence and history of Christian settlements,is easily forgotten or at least figures in the background only. After having read this book the Middle-East will never be the same to me again. With the exception of the Armenian genocide,I was hardly aware of all tragedies which happened but most of all: which are today still happeningto the very old Christian communities of these countries. Not only are they in permanent danger of being killed, often with no punishment of the perpetrators from the authorities, and have they already been driven out of places where they lived since a 1500 years, also their ancient buildings, art, manuscripts, possessions of huge historic meaning, are being destroyed. As these communities and their material heritage represent much of the roots of Western civilization, this loss is a huge loss for the history of mankind. What's going on is a complete annihilation of the wonderful mosaic of different civilizations this world once produced. As since many years but now more than ever the Middle-East is the focus of world politics,"From the Holy Mountain" should be read by a much wider group of people than lovers of good travelogues or lovers of these countries only. A most important and readable study, implicating a plea for tolerance and respect, it should be a must-read for all politicians in the world.
Zeal For Ecclesiastical Arcana
Yes! My title nabbed from the Amazon reviewer. Dalrymple's journey through the middle east, retraces the Byzantine traveller-monlk, John Moschos, author of, The Spiritual Meadow'. In the late C6th, accompanied by his pupil, he set to gather the wisdom of the desert fathers from Mt Athos, to Kurdisatan, then south through Syria, the Lebanon, Palestine, and on up the Nile. Dalrymple's trip in the early 90s was frought with tensions which today would cause an angel trepidation. The book was a revelation to me, filling in considerable gaps about the foundation and correlations of so many parties in the fermenting region. Muslim fundamentlists provide stiff opposition to Dalrymple's historical and current enquiries. But they are not unique in this. His evocation of place is crisply poetic and touched with memorable detail. His feel for people is very sympathetic. A work justly applauded. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Ancient - Greece    2. Ancient - Rome    3. History - General History    4. Middle East - General    5. Religion    6. Travel   

Reviews (6)

Very Good
This is a very good overview of Plato's philosophy. I would recommend this volume for those that want to learn of his philosophy without reading that acual works.

(no title)
I cannot recommend this volume highly enough. It's a collection of essays, all (bar one) especially written for this volume, each of them authored by a leading scholar on the respective dialogue or topic. Especially the pieces by Frede and Fine constitute path-breaking, durable contributions to Plato scholarship; each of them would merit the purchase by itself. Between them, Frede and Fine also introduce the reader to two rather different approaches to interpreting Plato, and at once present these approaches at their very best.
Your time and money are better spent elsewhere
Plato is perhaps the most approachable of the major philosophers. His work is largely presented in short dialogues. Their brevity allow them to be read in a single sitting, and their characterizations, humor, and stories engage even the reader new to philosophy.Read more

Subjects:  1. History & Surveys - Ancient & Classical    2. History & Surveys - General    3. Philosophy    4. Plato    5. Ancient (Classical) Greek    6. Ancient Greece    7. Ancient Greek & Roman philosophy    8. Philosophy / History, Criticism, Surveys   

Reviews (5)

Anotherbeautiful, classy, picture journey!
This is another portable, soft cover, coffee-table book with the same high standards as the one on the the Greek islands! It is beautifully crafted, with exquisite pictures, maps and diagrams of ancient buildings and modern towns. The book takes you on a cultural journey through Greece and its history. If you haven't visited Greece, it's a motivator. If you have, it brings back wonderful memories. This book is a broad sweep, you will need supplemental information, but it is unique in providing a visual overview of a beautiful and enchanting land! It is particularly nice that with the exception of the cultural history part, this book is basically not redundant with the Island book, covering the mainland as the title indicates.
Great overview, but you'll need a more detailed guide
The colorful photos and diagrams found in the DK travel books are a big plus for some and a major detraction for others. Personally I think this is a great book to use while making preliminary travel plans because it's very difficult to decide where to go if you can't see pictures of it first. Then once you narrow down your choices you'll want a more comprehensive travel guide, such as the Lonely Planet guides, which contain better maps, travel information, hotels, etc, but which have very few photos. I'm holding off on giving this book 5 stars because it lacks that kind of detail. However, I still pull it off my shelf frequently when I want to look up someplace on the Greek mainland I have not visited before.

love the photos but it needs more maps
On a 10-day driving trip around mainland Greece this guide proved a disappointment.There aren't enough city maps so you need to buy a Lonely Planet guide as well.I love the DK guides to London and Paris where the neighborhoods and sights are so intricate that the DK diagrams and walking tours are immensely helpful.The restaurant recommendations turned out to be rather poor from the DK guide.Frommer's and Lonely Planet were a lot more reliable.
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Subjects:  1. Europe - Greece    2. General    3. Greece    4. Guidebooks    5. Travel    6. Travel - Foreign    7. Travel / Europe / Greece   

Reviews (6)

Amusing catapults, interesting history, but no metric units
This book contains easy-to-follow instructions on how to build different catapults. Unfortunately there is no data regarding approx. distance and height for the suggested projectiles, why you must try for yourself. All units are english/american, which means you must translate this to metric units if you are more used to that.
Good reference for siege weapon builders
This is a juvenile title that is well illustrated with step by step directions for building several working models of weapons (from a simple sling to a trebuchet). It even gives directions for making rope. In addition to showing how to make siege engines, it covers their history, the reasons they were developed, how they were used and what caused a decline in their popularity. I can see a student using this book to make a model for a history class, or an SCA group adapting the information for a full-sized weapon.
Excellent story book and manual.
This book is divided as chapters that begin with a narration of a battle or siege, and then and then presents the instructions on how to build several catapults. I learned my archetype of a catapult is an onagre, and that is one of the oldest kind, so I am severely obsolete. The instructions on how to build the models are very clear and easy to follow. The book is appropriate for young audiences, yet entertaining for adults too.
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Subjects:  1. Artillery    2. Ballista    3. Catapult    4. Children's Books/Ages 9-12 Science    5. Children: Grades 4-6    6. Design and construction    7. History    8. Juvenile Nonfiction    9. Science & Nature - Experiments & Projects    10. Technology - How Things Work/Are Made    11. Juvenile Nonfiction / Science & Technology / How Things Work    12. Warfare & defence   

Reviews (12)

A delightful memoir
This was a book I hated to see end.The descriptions of Corfu, family members and residents of the island, and wildlife were lyrical and loving.The author was a keen observer of his environment and was able to share his observations vividly with the reader.His humorous anecdotes were of laugh-aloud variety.
A pleasant summer read!
My Family and Other Animals is about a ten-year-old boy named Gerald who moves to the sun-soaked island Corfu, Greece with his family to escape the dreary and gloomy climate in London. There, he encounters many different animals and people. I absolutely loved this book because it was really funny. There was a lot of action in this book. Durrell lovingly described each and every animal that he owned. He also told every detail of the settings, so I felt like I was really in Corfu!
My Family and Other Animals
Charming and delightful. A true story which made me want to pack and return to Corfu again. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Animals    2. Corfu Island    3. Corfu Island (Greece)    4. Description And Travel    5. Europe - Greece    6. General    7. Greece    8. Natural History    9. Nature    10. Nature/Ecology    11. Personal Memoirs    12. Travel - Foreign    13. Travel - General    14. Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs   

Reviews (18)

A Horrible Book
This book deals just with Ancient Greek Grammar.It can be used only as part of a University Course or as part of any teaching process involving a teacher.It is a book for ...professors of Ancient Greek!
Serious Introduction to Attic Greek
Mastronarde's book is an immensely useful and well-written introduction into Attic Greek.Now, Mastronarde does not bold-face important concepts or provide nice illustrations to guide the reader.However, if you are diligent enough to read the book thoroughly and do the exercises, you will have quite a thorough understanding of this language.
More praise, with some additions
I used Mastronarde's book to teach myself Attic Greek several years ago (and _before_ I knew Latin).I was adrift until I bought the ANSWER KEY.Nowadays, Mr. Mastronarde has a *(free) online website* which supplements this textbook, offering among other things versatile electronic flashcards keyed to the units (and is easily findable on Google). Of other textbooks I've seen, I also recommend Hanson and Quinn's "Intensive", which I think is a little stronger with respect to teaching the Subjunctive and the Optative Moods, but less good for solo learners.
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Subjects:  1. Ancient Languages - Classical Greek    2. Attic Greek dialect    3. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    4. Language    5. Ancient (Classical) Greek    6. History / Ancient / General    7. Language & Linguistics    8. Language learning: specific skills   

Reviews (1)

The Cost of Ethnic Cleansing
This is the best book I have read on the tragic Greek-Turkish "population exchange" of the 1920s. I found the book remarkable for several reasons: One is its organization. Chapters alternate between diplomatic history and human suffering stories, many of them based on interviews with survivors of that era. This has a powerful effect on the reader who sees how people were dying while "diplomats talked." Another is its fairness in discussing the responsibilities of each side. (The official Greek and Turkish positions place all the blame on the other side.) And finally the coverage of the suffering of the Muslims that were sent from Greece to Turkey as part of the "exchange." As the books states on p. 161 "In most cases, the fate of these migrants was not as terrible as that of the Anatolian Christians who fled either in the heat of war, or as a result of forced marches followed by forced embarkations on ships riddled with disease; but the Muslim exodus was bad enough."
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Subjects:  1. Emigration & Immigration    2. Europe - Greece    3. History    4. History - General History    5. History: World    6. Middle East - Turkey    7. Military - World War I    8. Modern - 20th Century    9. History / Modern / 20th Century   

Reviews (60)

GOOD READ!
I originally purchased this book to learn about a sorority I was interested in joining while in undergrad. Although I never joined any sorority in the NPHC, I found this book to be extremely insightful! It is a must have for those persons interested in learning about the history of these organizations and/or thinking about joining one.

Informative
I thought the book was interesting. It gave a general overview of each organizations, with a little extra emphasis on Alpha Phi Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta, but that can be expected, since he is an Alpha and his wife is a Delta. I do, however feel that he leaned too far when he went over what happened in the beginning with Delta and AKA, but that's just my opinion. There are so many different versions out there, each side has their own version, but since no one was there, we don't really know what happened. As one other reviewer stated, the Alpha Kappa Alpha hymn is misquoted. I think that theSigma Gamma Rho sister was a little confused. Under Hattie McDaniel's picture, it clearly states that she was "A prominent member of Sigma Gamma Rho", but the letters AKA are at the bottom of the page, and Sigma Gamma Rho are at the top.
good reference
The book was very insightful for my reference in researching the different sororities. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. African American college students    3. Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - Histor    4. Greek letter societies    5. Higher    6. History    7. History: World    8. Sociology    9. United States    10. United States - State & Local - General   

Reviews (2)

A bit bland
This mix of the views of modern professors on the first steps into a field which started growing wild explanations when writing was not common, covering some authors who are known mainly for what Aristotle and Plato thought of them, though Diogenes Laertius was the source of 65 passages also considered, now available in English with little need for study of the original language in which a love of wisdom seemed to be a high ideal proper for those who would like to teach, attempts to locate the major ideas which started growing in this field up to and beyond the time of Socrates without trying to define the meaning of philosophy for that particular individual.The scholarly division of labor makes it easy to suppose that knowledge in this field is sufficiently broad and diffuse enough to allow any student who specializes to become more of an expert than his teachers on some particular questions.The Index of Passages on pages 399-413 includes a range of authors, in addition to the listings for Plato and Aristotle which were so numerous I didn't count them.Undoubtedly this information will be helpful to students who are primarily concerned with learning what the professors of philosophy generally think about the Greek aspect of the roots of this tradition.Those who are more interested in lively questions about the nature of Socrates as an individual devoted to a more public practice of philosophy might be disappointed in the slight treatment he receives, compared to the more scholarly Greeks considered in this book. Philosophy before Plato
In common with so many of the other superb volumes in the Cambridge University "Companion" series, the latest addition to the line up contains scholarly information about philosophy before Plato that is both engaging and thorough. The editor has selected contributors whose names are well known within the field about which they write. Their articles neither patronize the neophyte, nor disappoint those whose learning is more advanced. After a survey of the field,discussions why the term "pre-Socratics" most often used with reference to the thinkers covered by this book is misleading and distorting, and a review of the sources of the writings (none of the original writings of these folk have survived the 2500 years that have intervened between their activity and the present) the book reviews the major fields of inquiry for the writers, and the writers themselves. Each of the articles brings new slants on old knowledge from which all but global experts will gain valuable information. There is also a superb listing of most of the literature about the period and about the scholarship on which our present understandings are based. There is no uniformity here: even at the beginning, perhaps especially at the beginning of the new endeavor that became philosophy there is a sense of excitement and discovery which the writers in this book enhance. Any student of Greek philosophy,even the most elementary survey course, will gain a lot of important knowledge from this book.... ... Read more

Subjects:  1. History & Surveys - Ancient & Classical    2. Philosophy    3. Ancient Greek & Roman philosophy    4. Philosophy / General    5. Philosophy, Ancient   

Reviews (2)

Delicate, Dedicated and Dignified
Arnold Joseph Toynbee's clear genius focused on a project of his younger years. It all started with Toynbee's insight into an enlightened contemporary reference to Gibbon's own account of De Administrando Imperio and to its author. Toynbee's mother also had a role in this " project " which is, afterall the work of a professor of byzantinology. The author's pertinence, honesty, erudition and writing style are, as usual, unsurpassed. If it were only by this book, and Toynbee would enter the famous historiographic gallery guarded by pillars such as Edward Gibbon and Lord Acton. However, my cultural hero, whose own interests ranged from International Affairs to Archives of the British Admirality and from anthropology and histories of religion to those of cities and sociology, did it greater than ever. Civilizations, wrote Toynbee, don't die. They only commit suicide.
Classical History Explained
Taking his cue from the De Administrando written by Constantine VII and other Byzantine historians before him, this thick volume may be Toynbee's greatest achievement. Throughout, he takes Constantine's own words with a grain of salt, especially about events before the Macedonian dynasty by applying a historical perspective to this entire period of Byzantine civilization (c. 800-1050)Read more

Subjects:  1. 527-1081    2. Byzantine Empire    3. Civilization    4. Economic conditions    5. Europe - Greece    6. Foreign relations    7. Unassigned Title    8. Asian / Middle Eastern history: c 500 to c 1500    9. Constantine   

Reviews (20)

A great reference
The Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD) is a wonderful reference for people with a keen interest in ancient Greece and Rome. It contains brief articles on almost every imaginable aspect of ancient Greek and Roman history (including thematic entries), by scholars who are specialists in their fields.The entries are informative yet concise, and provide a good starting point for further study through cross-referencing and mini-bibiographies.It is probably the most useful to students, but the short articles are written in such a way that non-specialists will not feel left out.

A Classic Oxford production
I received the first edition as a prize in a library contest back when many of the people who appear in the OCD were still alive -- when you could actually feel the print on the pages.It has served this classist well these many years.The second edition seemed a bit boring -- one could but wonder, why the effort? Hence, I was a bit wary of the "new & improved" 3rd edition, though I have long respected Hornblower's work.
But why the new Revised Edition
The Second Edition of the OCD was published in 1970; the Third Edition was published in 1996. Now we have the Third Edition Revised published in 2003. So why the revision of the third edition? No one seems to be able to answer that. If there were mistakes made in the 1996 edition why is it still for sale?Don't get me wrong I have used the OCD for about 30 years and it is a great tool, but it makes one wonder why the revision? Research in the Classics is moving at such a pace to warrant a revision. So as one who has all three I feel a little cheated by the Oxford University Press. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Ancient - Greece    2. Classical dictionaries    3. General    4. Reference    5. Ancient Greece    6. Classical Studies    7. European history: BCE to c 500 CE    8. Prehistoric archaeology    9. Reference / General    10. Reference works   

Editorial Review

Thucydides' Read more

Reviews (43)

A Possession For All Time
Thucydides understood the importance of the events he both witnessed and took part in and for that reason he understood why others should know about them. It is quite remarkable to think that twenty-five hundred years later, Thucydides's account of the Peloponnesian War is still being widely read. But I suppose that's natural considering his account provides so much of the fairly limited evidence we have of the events of that tragic period. We can be thankful for his foresight and appreciation of educating those of us who came much later.
The Landmark Thucydides
This is the Crawley translation with some modernization by the editor, Robert B. Strassler. I won't presume to say that it is the best translation; I have also read others and Crawley's is, in my opinion, at least very good. However, the other features of this edition make it excellent. Victor Davis Hanson's introduction is thoughtful and helpful. In the margins of the translation, Strassler has summarized each section of each chapter of each book. Every two or three pages, there is a map showing in detail the area, cities and other land and island features Thucydides refers to in each chapter or section. I find this to be very, very helpful and unique to this edition. Also, the eleven appendices, each written by recognized scholars, cover a number of helpful and interesting topics (e.g., Athenian Government in Thucydides, Spartan Institutions, Land and Trireme Warfare in Thucydides, Dialects and Ethnic Groups, Currency and Calendar and Dating Systems). Therefore, I highly recommend the Landmark edition.
Useful, but prolix
As far as utility goes, this is a very good place to start for anyone who is interested in learning about the peloponnesian war directly from the primary source himself, Thucydides. The book is filled with maps and footnotes in almost every page, so that you'll never find yourself needing to look into an atlas in order to figure out what the heck is going on with who and where (a problem I had the first time I read the History).