Alexander the Great

The Hunt for a New Past

By: Paul Cartledge

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Paul Cartledge, one of the world's foremost scholars of ancient Greece, illuminates the brief but iconic life of Alexander (356-323 B.C.), king of Macedon, conqueror of the Persian Empire, and founder of a new world order. Alexander's legacy has had a major impact on military tacticians, scholars, statesmen, adventurers, authors, and filmmakers.

Cartledge brilliantly evokes Alexander's remarkable political and military accomplishments, cutting through the myths to show why he was such a great leader. He explores our endless fascination with Alexander and gives us insight into his charismatic leadership, his capacity for brutality, and his sophisticated grasp of international politics.

Alexander the Great is an engaging portrait of a fascinating man and a welcome balance to the myths, legends, and skewed history that have obscured the real Alexander.

©2004 Paul Cartledge (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"May be the most accessible introduction in print....An amazingly solid, balanced, and evocative view of the man." ( Washington Post Book World)
"Readable and engrossing....Immediate, discursive, insightful, and highly engaging." ( Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
"With his usual riveting storytelling, Cartledge...narrates Alexander's life and rise to power. Cartledge's knack for bringing history to life makes for an absorbing new biography of the legendary Greek leader." ( Publishers Weekly)

Outstanding Knowledge Book

Paul Cartledge does an outstanding job reviewing Alexander the Great's life and influence on Civilization. It concludes with the summary discussion of his Knowledge Management.

Dont Believe bad reviews

Great narration. very well researched. best if you read a basic biography of alexander first.

Who was the real Alexander?

Throughout history, people have written of Alexander and his achievements. The accuracy of these accounts is what is in question. Even the accounts written by contemporaries of the man are laced with the writer's own agenda. Paul Cartledge does his best to weave through history to bring us a true description of Alexander as a man, a general, a politician, and much more. Cartledge takes a balanced approach, using his best logic and reasoning skills to give us this portrait. This book is not a chronological study of events, but rather a study of the man behind the myth. It will jump around in time a bit. There has been talk about whether to read/listen this first or not. You may want to familiarize yourself with the basics, as Cartledge will go over specific incidents that you may not have a clue about. That was me, and I admit, the first half of the book was a struggle. By the second half I had caught on to what the author was trying to do, and was able to settle into it. The appendix is actually one of my favorite parts, because Cartledge gives us more insight as to why he came up with some of his opinions. In all, I am not sorry that I didn't know more about Alexander before getting into this book. I learned a lot and was happy to listen a second time, to pick up on the things in the first half that were a bit over my head. This is a very good study of Alexander, and whether you read it first or not, you should read it. The added plus with the audiobook is John Lee. I've listened to his narration many times before, and few are better.

Not well edited

The author continuously repeats the same topic or story, almost verbatim. It is very annoying.

NOT a Chronology of Alexander’s Life

For those looking for a chronological retelling of Alexander’s deeds - look elsewhere. This book, while interesting, reads like a collection of scholarly essays on Alexander’s life and spends most of its pages analyzing the meaning or veracity of Alexander’s supposed deeds. The author assumes that the reader already has a detailed knowledge of Alexander’s story. The order of the topics covered in the book does not follow any clear pattern. The author jumps back and forth to different points in time to illustrate his arguments but does a poor job of tying the themes together. This makes the information feel repetitive at times and also random. Overall, it was difficult to keep up with the Author’s themes.

If you have read a number of other books on Alexander, you may find this book interesting and nuanced but I strongly recommend that those new to Alexander consult other books before turning to this one.

finished with a sense of more respect for the man.

there were a few times in the book where there were so many Greek and Macedonian names being spoken that I didnt even want to pay attention. but I feel like this was due to his desire to show academia that he had done it.

ultimately I have benefitted from this book by expanding my understanding of the man Alexander, and what it was like living in those times so long ago

Superb Content

Due to the antiquity of the subject matter it is difficult to get all of the details we would wish but the details are rich and well reasoned in their acquisition and most Alexandrian scholars are liable to learn something they didn't know. I had to slow it down to 90 percent but that was no inconvenience. Highly recommend.

Outstanding

An outstanding listen! Keeps you interested throughout and teaches a lot about mighty Alexander as well.

Beware of unsupervised children and their toys.

Beware of unsupervised children and their toys. How do you write a biography of a God?

It's sometimes hard to remember how much Alexander the Great accomplished in his short 32 year life -- conquering Greece, Persia, much of Asia, and being worshipped as divine being among the highlights. Cartledge's 2005 biography of Alexander (subtitled: "The Hunt for a New Past") eschews the hagiography and presents a lively, reasoned, and well written look at one of history's most influential, fascinating, and admittedly mysterious figures.

Cartledge tries to cut through the fog of god-worship and shows Alexander for what he most likely was, a passionate, motivated, charismatic, but somewhat chaotic young man -- who just happened to have an army at his disposal. Remove Alexander's access to tens of thousands of spears. Would we know his name? Almost certainly not. Or if Alexander didn't come to power until mid to late 20s, would he have been as aggressively expansionist? Would he do so with such a quasi-religious zeal and the certitude of youth in his pursuit of "Pan-Hellenism," which Cartledge largely finds as a pretext for more mundane logistical and strategic goals?

While this is as much a biography of Alexander the Great, it's also gives a glimpse into Alexander the Petty, Alexander the Tyrannical, and Alexander the Paranoid as his efforts to maintain his grip on power and rapid expansion leads to mutinies, reigns of terror/purges, and assassination plots (both real and invented).

Overall, an eminently readable and insightful look into one of history's most fascinating characters.

Interesting Content; Great Narration

Although I'm familiar with the subject matter, I thought I'd give this a try and might learn something new. I didn't actually experience any startling insights, but I enjoyed the author's prose style and loved John Lee's narration. In my opinion John Lee is a brilliant voice actor. He could read an old phone book and make it interesting. I loved his first person narrative in the SPQR series, for instance. So I recommend this book to readers at all levels of knowledge about Alexander and his world,