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Virtual Macedonia Bookstore - Alexander the Great: A Reader

Alexander the Great: A Reader
List Price: $39.95
Our Price: $11.80
Your Save: $ 28.15 ( 70% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Routledge
Average Customer Rating: Average rating of 3.5/5Average rating of 3.5/5Average rating of 3.5/5Average rating of 3.5/5Average rating of 3.5/5

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 938.07092
EAN: 9780415291873
ISBN: 0415291879
Label: Routledge
Manufacturer: Routledge
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: 2003-02-07
Publisher: Routledge
Studio: Routledge

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Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: Excellent collection of material
Comment: Everything you could want to know about the problems and controversies affecting Alexander will be found in this book. A gem of a book, a must for anyone interested in Greek history.

Customer Rating: Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5
Summary: unbalanced
Comment: This volume contains some interesting articles. Some submissions (Brunt pages 45-51; Narain pages 161-167) are truly rewarding and interesting. But others (Worthington pages 303-316) are just a waste of paper and ink. In general, the editor of this compilation of academic articles seems to lack empathy with the Ancient world to truly understand what he is dealing with. So the whole collection is unbalanced - in quality, perspective, scientific approach. Only readers who are already very familiar with academic studies about Alexander should be able to make a sharp distinction between the worthwile articles and the rubbish.

What annoys me is that of all the published articles, no single one is has a proper date. There is a long article by J.F.C. Fuller, who died in 1966. Fuller was born in 1878 (!), took up interest in Alexander in 1917 (!) and wrote his major works about Alexander around 1957. But Fuller's article in Worthington's reader is published without any proper dating, confusing readers to expect that it might be especially written for Worthington's 2003 edition of "A Reader". That can't be true. Mister Fuller would have been 125 years old!

So Worthington's edition - to me - seems like a hoax.

That doesn't mean that 'some' of the articles aren't truly worthwile. That's why there are still 2 stars in my rating. But in general: I fear that books like this tend to downgrade the overall reputation of a scientist / editor in the long run.



Editorial Reviews:

With his unprecedented conquests from Greece in the west to India in the East, Alexander the Great was the type of man that legends are made of; therein lies the problem for those studying him. Ought we to accept the image of a dashing king enjoying a string of spectacular successes, or adopt a more cynical evaluation, taking note of all the negative aspects of his reign? In the light of the evidence at our disposal, does he even deserve to be called "Great"?

This exciting new volume is an indispensable guide for undergraduates to the study of Alexander the Great, showing the problems of the ancient source material, and making it clear that there is no single approach to be taken.

The eleven thematic chapters contain a broad selection of the most significant published articles about Alexander, examining the main areas of debate and discussion:the sources; Alexander's background; Alexander's aims; Alexander and the Greeks; Alexander and Asia; Alexander, India and the Final Years; Alexander as General; Alexander and "The unity of Mankind"; Alexander and Deification; Alexander and Conspiracies; Alexander: The 'Great'?

The Reader has the distinctive feature of translating a substantial number of the more inaccessible primary sources; each chapter is also prefaced with a succinct introduction to the topic under consideration.


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