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Virtual Macedonia Bookstore - The Trojan War: A New History
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List Price: $15.00
Our Price: $4.28
Your Save: $ 10.72 ( 71% )
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Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 939.21
EAN: 9780743264426
ISBN: 0743264428
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: 2007-08-21
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Concise book on Trojan war written by scholar but written for laymen
Comment: This book provides a concise (about 190 pages - can be read in about 3-4 hours) history of the Trojan war containing the latest hypothesis, conjectures and archealogical evidence available on the war. For example, the various conjectures on the Trojan horse and the fall of Troy (i.e., was it a battering ram? Siege tower? Was it meant as a metaphorical symbol by Homer?) take about 2-3 pages while in more serious academic books they may take a half a chapter or more. The book also provides short answers/hypothesis regarding many other issues such as the mores of the time, how large states were (pretty small by classical Greeco-Roman standards), etc.
The book is written by a scholar in the field but in a manner that is readily accessible to the layman (i.e., very few footnotes or references). All and all, if all you want to spend is 3-4 hours to get a good overview of the war and the circumstances surrounding it, this is a book that will serve you well.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Historical Interpretive Account of the Possible Battle
Comment: Straus is enjoying a goodly amount of popularity recently for his well-written interpretive accounts of events in classican Greek history. The Trojan war is of course where it all started. At least in terms of written narrative accounts of the battle that happenned on the deeply shaded edges of the historical record. Historians have resorted to using the latest scientific technology to posit certain theories and methods of analsysis for times and places that we know next to nothing about.
The problem I have with such histories is how statements of possible historical outcomes are articulated. Sometimes they are articulated as truth when there is clear contrary evidence, and sometimes to buttress the authority of the author. Strauss is no Victor Davis Hansen doling out the truth sermon on thin evidence, but, at the end of the day, some of the events described in this history are stretched a little far. That does not hinder the enjoyment of this book -- it reads well. But at the end of the day I am not sure that I learned that much about the battle.
Strauss' history is good. He writes cleanly and has good command of his subject. He roughly starts with a description of what is known, what is unknown, what the ground looks like today, what is may have looked like the past and then draws out a plausible action plot for both the Greeks and the Trojans.
In much of the book this works well. At other times I feel that I am reading a rough statement of what anyone with a broad interpretation of the historical period would know. For example we can easily surmise that that trip from Aechea to Troy would have possibly been rough, that people would have thrown up on ship, and that the conditions they lived in would have been considered revolting by modern standards. I am not so sure what this adds to historical scholarship and, more precisely, I am not sure what it adds to my historical understanding of the battle.
The is remarkably little archeological reasearch cited (nothing really of the work by Schliemann) and there is precious little on the various ages of the city and how such epochs were devised and calculated.
That said, I think the book is a worthy read, but I do not think that I really learned anything more about Troy from this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Couldn't Finish
Comment: I just put this book down without finishing it. I cannot remember the last time I did that with a book. But this is one of the greatest disappointments I have ever picked up. This book is almost entirely conjecture, and not even interesting conjecture at that. Do I really want to know what Helen MIGHT have been wearing when Paris MIGHT have been visiting Menelaus, etc., etc., ad nauseum. The introduction was good, I will say that. Otherwise, I think the only person who might benefit from this book would be a Hollywood producer looking to flesh out his stage sets for his next big Greek classic blockbuster.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A great read about the Trojan War
Comment: I came to this book after only recently watching the movie Troy. I had heard a lot of criticism of the movie from a historical perspective and so I wanted to read about the Trojan War for myself. Barry Strauss is a Professor at Cornell University. His book is highly readable and jumps between scenes derived from the Iliad to archaeological findings.
In some respects he is on safe ground as there is much dispute about the Trojan War. As the first book that I have read about the Trojan War I found it good as a way to understand what the reality may have been like. The Greeks (Mycenaeans), according to Strauss engaged in a dirty war of pillage on the Trojan Plains. Helen may have been beautiful but when Paris carried her off he also took her wealth which was probably what her husband wanted; she was actually the native ruler of Sparta not him.
He thinks that the Trojan War did take place although it may not have been in line with Homer's description. It may not have been ten years long but it certainly did result in the sacking of Troy. It is impossible to say whether there was a Trojan Horse and he postulates that maybe the horse idea was just a metaphor for another form of deception.
There are some good maps at the start to give the reader an idea about where events occurred and they aid in understanding the story.
It was an interesting book to read and I would recommend it for people interested in the war. I would also add that another good source is the DVD set by Michael Wood, `In Search of the Trojan War.' While it was made in the 1980s it does visit all the relevant locations for the Trojan War and so gives the viewer an idea of what the ground looked like. There is also an interview with Michael Wood on the first disc where he updates the viewer about what has been discovered since. There is some disagreements with Barry Strauss but given the nature of the quest for the Trojan War, the disagreement is only natural.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Outstanding history of what might have happened
Comment: For centuries the established wisdom has held that the Trojan War is pure myth, a heroic fabrication of poets like Homer. This idea was little altered even with the discovery of Troy's ruins. Barry Strauss's contention in this book is that Homer's account is not as outlandish as has been believed. Strauss doesn't attempt to show that the Trojan War occurred in exactly the way Homer described, but only that it certainly could have. He does an admirable job.
The book takes most of its structure from the Greek myths themselves, especially the version found in The Iliad. Strauss begins with Paris abducting Helen and proceeds rapidly from there to the final destruction of proud Ilium. Each chapter covers a particular section or theme found in The Iliad, including the initial abduction, the bickering between Achilles and Agamemnon, the plague, the nighttime treachery of Odysseus and Diomedes, and the great final duel between Hector and Achilles.
With each section Strauss adopts something of an "if-then" approach, for example: if a Trojan prince named Paris seduced and abducted a Greek queen how would it have happened, knowing what we now know historically and archaeologically about that period in history? IF he had THEN they may have spoken in Greek, or perhaps Luwian, a near-relation of Hittite etc. The results are endlessly fascinating. Strauss clearly knows his stuff and knowing you're in the hands of a master makes the book a joy to read.
The book is not without its flaws. It's very short, offering a very tasty sample of a rich subject but not a full course meal. And, quite honestly, the vast majority of Strauss's work is conjecture. Well-reasoned conjecture based on extensive research and an obviously keen mind, but conjecture nonetheless. Also, Strauss extrapolated from the Hittites and Egyptians just a little too often. They may have lived in close proximity in both time and place to the bronze-age Greeks and Trojans described here, but there still must have been huge cultural differences.
In the end, all we do know for sure is that Troy once was and then burned to the ground in some catastrophe. Whether Strauss's book offers the answers or not, it is engaging, enlightening, and never boring. It gave me not only a greater appreciation for the history that may lie behind the myth, but for the myth--and Homer's account of it--itself. The next time I read The Iliad I'll do so with this book firmly in mind.
Recommended.
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Editorial Reviews:
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The Trojan War is one of history's most famous conflicts, a ten-year-long war waged over the beautiful Helen. For more than two thousand years this story has been a source of artistic inspiration. But is it true? In The Trojan War historian and classicist Barry Strauss explores the myth and the reality behind the war, from Homer's accounts in The Iliad and The Odyssey to Heinrich Schliemann's discovery of ancient Troy in the late nineteenth century to more recent excavations that have yielded intriguing clues to the story behind the fabled city. The Trojans, it turns out, were not ethnic Greeks but an Anatolian people closely allied with the Hittite Empire to the east. At the time of the Trojan War the Greeks were great seafarers while Troy was a more settled civilization. And while the cause of the war may well have been the kidnapping of a queen -- and, more significantly, the seizure of her royal dowry -- the underlying cause was a conflict between the Trojans and the Greeks for control of the eastern Aegean Sea. Through vivid reconstructions of the battles and insightful depictions of its famous characters, The Trojan War reveals the history behind Homer's great epic, without losing the poetry and grandeur of the epic myth.
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