Ancient Greece, Second Edition

From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times

By: Thomas R. Martin

Narrated by: John Lescault

Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

In this compact yet comprehensive history of ancient Greece, Thomas R. Martin brings alive Greek civilization from its Stone Age roots to the fourth century BC. Focusing on the development of the Greek city-state and the society, culture, and architecture of Athens in its Golden Age, Martin integrates political, military, social, and cultural history in a book that will appeal to students and general audiences alike.

Now in its second edition, this classic work now features updates throughout.

©2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Just the way I like it!

I listened to this mostly while traveling in Greece, and it was a wonderful companion as I was visiting sites and museums. It is very clear, direct, and informational. I prefer an efficient narrative and this spoke to me.

I’m a history fan and this was informative but a snoozer..

I got this because I’m a huge fan of Greek myths and am headed to Greece next month. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of fascinating material here (Alcibiades, Socrates, Sparta, Perecles) but there’s also plenty of general anthropological fat as well that dulls the taste for the rest. It takes a lot to bore me with history but this book occasionally fails to illuminate things that I found interesting and made me feel like a bored teenager being forced to sit through History Class - and I thought I’d outgrown that!! Furthermore the reader’s performance, though measured and lucid, had, by design, matched the sterility and blandness of the academic prose. I found myself tuning out for long sections and not feeling compelled to go back and get caught up - this is from a guy who didn’t want to miss a single moment of that great Frederick Douglass biography Prophet of Freedom and that book was LOOOONG. I wasn’t a huge fan of that reader either, but that had some poetry to it and at transported the listener. I struggled with this one.

Well-written, poor reading/editing performance

The content is straightforward, and about what you'll expect. A narrative about how things were in Ancient Greece, mostly from a political perspective (rulers, government, relevant geography, wars, etc.), but with some information about social life.

What distracts from this is the poor production quality. First, the reading sounds heavily spliced, and so the tone and volume can change mid-sentence, which is distracting. The sound engineers and director didn't do enough to ensure consistency in the result. Also, no one proof-listened to this, as at least twice I noticed a phrase, or an entire passage, was repeated (different takes of each). I have to wonder if anything was skipped, or out-of-order.

Not only that, the narrator himself seems uninterested in the text. He sometimes puts emphasis on the wrong word in a sentence given the context, indicating he's not paying attention to what he's reading. He speaks haltingly and without proper phrasing. Sometimes there's a participial or prepositional phrase at the start of a sentence, and he reads it as if the sentence ended with the phrase. Or vice-versa; making the end of a sentence sound like a phrase connected to the next one. All this makes the text hard to follow at times. And there were a few words that he didn't pronounce clearly enough, and even as I listened several times, I never could figure out what it was, even in context!

How do you make Greek history this boring?

I have a degree in Ancient History and Religion, I took Greek in college. But, it's been 20 years so I thought a refresher would be nice. I got through the Mycenean era and had to stop. I love this stuff, but I have never seen someone take all the joy out of a story the way this book does. Clinical, tedious, and utterly boring.

Greek geeks

The history of the Greeks always feels like the history of the literate world, doesn't it?

Good easy listenimg

A good book for listening at low volume, a good put to relax to whole trying to good to sleep. the topuc was broad enough and the narrator voice was perfect.

snore

The narration and context remind me of stereo instructions. Not at all what I expected.

Highly disappointing

This book reads like an entry-level college textbook. Why are we given the background information on southeastern Europe as early as 10000 BCE and why is the region still referred to as Greece in the book when at that point there weren’t any Greeks even in existence anywhere?

Despite the 2013 publication date, Martin argues for an Anatolian Indo-European homeland, a minority view in 2013, and then remarkably doesn’t defend his position or explain archaeologists who reject the outdated Anatolian hypothesis, such as David Anthony, who published his groundbreaking work way back in 2007, 6 years before this book (Go read that instead).

The final nail in the coffin is the author’s anachronistic criticism of Athens, in the very first chapter, of not including women in the class of voting citizens in c. 450 BCE. I’ve never heard that one before!

Reading is pretty good despite some mismatched editing, I would have given up trying to read this after the first few chapters so I commend the Audible reader, Lescault, on endurance more than anything.

Great Introductory Work

Just finished listening to this one! This was my first audiobook, so I did not know what to expect, and I also didn’t have other (more smoothly-narrated) books to compare it to.
I really enjoyed this work! As other reviewers have mentioned, it is read in a rather dry way (like a textbook), which may take many listeners time to get used to. I listened to it at around 1.2x or 1.4x speed, which made it easier for me to follow.

Content-wise, this is a really interesting & responsibly-researched piece. It follows the history of ancient Greece chronologically, and flows from different topics within that, from art to political events to cultural and economic norms. The author acknowledges the limits of his work (a very academically responsible thing to do), and encourages readers to examine the primary sources to learn more on their own.

One thing I did not expect, but very much appreciated, was the author’s intentionality to discuss women’s experiences & include the contributions of female poets, playwrights, and philosophers throughout the book. It was not handled in an overtly-feminist way, but with the same respect with which the male historical figures are discussed, as well as with awareness of the cultural context in which these women lived. Since the contributions of women are often overlooked by historians, or treated as a “special” thing, this was a very pleasant & subtle detail that I personally rather liked.

Greek History

Good voice,easy to follow. Loved it.
Learn many things I didn't know before now.

Superb Survey

A very good survey of the history of Ancient Greece. Organised chronologically it covers all the usual events in Greek history and does not stint in charting cultural achievements.

Whilst you obviously cannot expect great depth in a short book on a vast subject it manages to present a fair amount of detail whilst still remaining very readable/listenable.

Avoid.

I didn't think that it could be possible to make Greek History boring but this author manages it. All of the greatness of Greece is ignored so the author can waffle on endlessly about gender studies and how unwoke the Greeks were. And the audio book is narrated by someone who speaks like a robot and cannot pronounce any of the Greek names. Waste of money.

Good overall review of Ancient Greece

I enjoyed listening to this audiobook. The material was engaging enough that the reader's somewhat unenthusiastic (but very clear and we'll spoken) tone didn't make much difference to me.

Perfect introduction

This is a perfect introduction to what is such a dauntingly huge area. It is full of fascinating information while maintaining a really strong narrative line. It gives one the courage to go to the sorce works with some confidence, which is exactly what i was hoping for.

Brilliant book read by a sleepy robot

This is a fantastic brief overview of Ancient Greece. I wasn’t sure unfortunately if the narrator was actually human or a computer program.

amazing overview, average execution

I found the narration to be choppy and uninspired, but the content was of such high quality that after a while I got used to it and an now SO much better informed on Greek history. A great place to start for anyone wanting to prop up their ancient Greek knowledge

Too superficial, no substance

I appreciate that this is a vast subject and almost impossible to condense but unfortunately this was so superficial and such a race through important events, lacking any detail that it might just as well be a list of events and dates.

i listened to it twice and still came away really none the wiser on Ancient Greece.
The structure is messy, certainly not helped having no chapter titles. The writer goes off on tangents and doesn't wrap up the gist of an event.
i still have no idea why the war with Sparta started or how it ended. The 30 Tyrants came out of nowhere with no explanation.

The narrator is terribly dry and monotonous.

There are much better books on this important subject. You won't get anything meaningful from this.

could not cope with the robotic narration

Tried to persevere, it is an interesting subject but the narration really grated and I was not taking in the words because of that. So had to give up. pity

Solid overview

This was a bit textbooky, and in places felt a bit like Wikipedia, but that's kinda the point - a solid linear narrative history. That it calls out key themes and is at pains to point readers to the original sources is a solid bonus.

Let down slightly by workmanlike narration with occasional glaring shifts in sound quality and reading tone. (I may be being unfair, but I also struggle with American voice artists for European history... Just feels weird, somehow.)

Very good ,compact history of Greece.

I thought that this audio book was very good. I found out some extremely interesting information. I would recommend. I do however speed up the narrative as the narrator was a bit slow.