The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome by Susan Wise Bauer Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome
Book Review: Unparalelled.
Summary: 5 Stars
Bauer has done it. Although no ONE book can capture the entire Ancient World, this author get you to understand the time period before she moves on. I LOVE the way this book is layed out. Instead of 5 chapters on Sumer then 5 on Egypt then 5 on India, etc...Bauer breaks it down into managable times - does 100 years of Sumer then 100 of egypt of the same time, then 100 of India at the same time period then back to Sumer, etc. you get a real sence of how and who and when the world changed and began to evolve. Although I have only been able to hammer out half of this 800+ page book in the 3 weeks I have been reading it...I have no intention of putting it down, and look forward to reading it again some time from now. Well done Bauer!Book Review: Very interesting and quite informative
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a student of Ancient Mesopotamia, so I am always checking out new book on ancient history. This fat little book is crammed full of information on the Ancient and Classical worlds. Organized in the form of discrete essays, the essays are then presented by subject - The Edge of History, Firsts, Struggle, Empires and Identity - with the essays then sorted into chronological order. Each of the essays is very interesting and quite informative, and along the way the reader is treated to a good number of pictures, timelines and maps.
Overall, I found this book to be an excellent book, giving the reader a good feel for ancient history in the Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, India, and China. (The last two are often under-represented in older books.) I think very highly of this book, and recommend it to all students of history.
Book Review: A Pretty Good, But Very Limited, History
Summary: 3 Stars
Following up on the success of her children's homeschool history series, Susan Wise Bauer offers this large-scale (750 pages) introduction to ancient history for adults. Bauer, a "print historian" for whom the written record is paramount, tells the story of five ancient civilizations - Egypt, Mesopotamia/the Middle East, Greece/Rome, India, and China - that have left us the most extensive written records. Her narrative focuses entirely on political history: kingdoms, empires, and their rulers; this writer will have no truck with artists, poets, philosophers, architects, or mathematicians; much less with archaeology, anthropology, sociology, or any other of the numerous disciplines that have revolutionized the study of history in the last 50 years.
Rulers and Empires is her only story, but she tells it well; the book is a pleasant read, and the author deserves full credit both for the huge effort involved in producing such a volume, and for the accuracy (the undoubted product of years of sleepless nights spent digesting hundreds of primary reference works) of her narrative. I liked the book, and enjoyed reading it. But it is very limited. There is a kind of imbalance, and tunnel-vision, that becomes more apparent the more one reflects on it. This is a book that has no fewer than eight index entries on Merodach-baladan, an obscure 8th century BC king of Babylon, but not one word on Euclid, and only two sentences on the Parthenon!
To sum up, Bauer's volume, while competently written, perversely omits nearly all of the artistic and intellectual achievements of the ancient world, that alone make that world truly great and worthy of study.
Book Review: Outstanding Introduction to the Ancient World
Summary: 5 Stars
After college, I have been drawn to reading more and more history because of books like this. This isn't your standard textbook-style history that we all remember as dry and boring. It is a very readable text with helpful maps and time-lines aimed at those folks who are just beginning to rediscover history.
Mrs. Bauer does not inundate you with useless facts and trivia but instead teaches us history through the literature and letters of the time. We don't waste time hearing about the "average Joe" but instead get a glimpse into the minds of ancient leaders by becoming familiar with their inscriptions and those works of old historians like Herodotus. While most of the book is devoted to Mesopotamia, Northern Africa, and Europe, there are some great chapters on India and China to add a little variety.
One very nice feature of this book is its short chapters. There are over 80 chapters in this book and they break up the story into easily digested pieces. You'll find yourself reading a half-dozen chapters at a time with ease and I have even caught myself reading over a chapter while waiting for dinner to cook. You feel like you are making progress, and while I can't explain it, the shorter chapters seem to help me stay focused and remember more of what I have read.
Overall, it is a very good book that makes history enjoyable for those of us that remembered it being so dry. I'll be waiting for a second book to get me into the Renaissance - if she writes it, I'll buy it!
Book Review: What a really nice book
Summary: 5 Stars
I enjoy reading this book. The book seems "just right" in telling the story and introducing facts. I recommend this book to any person who wants to know more about history as a story.