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The Birth of Classical Europe
- A History from Troy to Augustine
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
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Publisher's summary
To an extraordinary extent we continue to live in the shadow of the classical world. At every level, from languages to calendars to political systems, we are the descendants of a “classical Europe,” using frames of reference created by ancient Mediterranean cultures. As this consistently fresh and surprising new audio book makes clear, however, this was no less true for the inhabitants of those classical civilizations themselves, whose myths, history, and buildings were an elaborate engagement with an already old and revered past - one filled with great leaders and writers, emigrations and battles. Indeed, much of the reason we know so much about the classical past is because of the obsessive importance it held for so many generations of Greeks and Romans, who interpreted and reinterpreted their changing casts of heroes and villains. Figures such as Alexander the Great and Augustus Caesar loom large in our imaginations today, but they themselves were fascinated by what had preceded them.
A stunning work of research and imagination, The Birth of Classical Europe is an authoritative history, covering two millennia of human experience and casting new light on the world that in many ways still defines our own. In their thoughtful look at the twin engines of memory and culture, Simon Price and Peter Thonemann show how our own changing values and interests have shaped our feelings about an era that is by some measures very remote but by others startlingly close.
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- David I. Williams
- 01-12-14
Excellent overview of the Classical World
There are thousands of books about the classical world so one might ask if we really need another. The answer is yes we do. Our understanding of the past is constantly changing as new information is discovered. New writers have new ways of looking at old subjects. Most of all as the world we live in changes we need new books to help us connect with a past that is constantly moving.
The Birth of Classical Europe is a wonderful introduction to the ancient world. The authors focus on Greek history and then move on to Rome. They do not spend a lot of time on the civilizations of Mesopotamia, the Ancient Near East, and Egypt. That is not because of any Eurocentric prejudice, but rather they focus their story on one specific region. They spend a lot of time on Minoan and Mycenaean cultures. Using archeological discoveries from the last 20 years they build up a picture of the ancient world that is a little less catastrophic than the previous pictures that we have had. They argue more for a story of a sequence migrations that ends with assimilation. This is a little less sudden than the image of hordes of invaders wiping out the natives and resettling the region.
The authors spend a lot of time with ancient authors and recognize the value of the ancient sources. They do not accept the ancient stories at face value, that would of course be a mistake. Instead they look at the archeology and see how that illuminates the stories. Often credible theories of the past can be built when one uses this method.
This book is not meant to be a comprehensive history of the ancient world. Instead it is an introduction to the period. As the first volume of The Penguin History of Europe its purpose is to give the reader an understanding of the foundations of European civilization. The book is designed for the general reader. If you are not well read in the period you can pick this book up and learn a lot. I consider myself to be moderately well read in the period and I learned a lot. The Further Reading section at the end has a wonderful list of books, both scholarly and general reader, that should keep the person interested in the period satisfied for a long time to come.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who would like to learn about the ancient world. This can be read as a general reader book and could also be used as a high school level textbook for home schoolers or others interested in providing young people with well written book that is informative and enjoyable.
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32 people found this helpful
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- Yvette A.
- 08-05-21
Amazing Book, Everyone should read this.
This book takes you from the beginning of civilization to the end of Rome. The writing is amazing and so is the narration. The correct dating system is used which was a real treat
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- timbawolf
- 09-28-23
Not a History
I spent 20 minutes writing an in-depth review on my phone and the Audible app flushed it into oblivion, so now you get the short, angry version. This book sucks. It's not "a history [of Europe] fro Troy to Augustine;" it's a look at how Greeks and Romans intrepreted and reinterpreted their own histories in different situations. If you don't already know much about Greek philosophy, or the social structure of Sparta, or slavery in the ancient world, or Roman family life, or basically anything that isn't a dead classics professor banging on about how Greek towns in Asia Minor used made-up connections to the Iliad as part of their diplomacy with the Athenians, you'll learn nothing from this book. The omissions are so numerous I couldn't begin to list them, but let me just repeat the one I consider the most damning: no Greek philosophy. None. Not a single paragraph on Platonism or Stoicism. I don't envy William Chester Jordan when he has to explain Aquinas in volume III to readers who know nothing about Aristotle.
Now, if you wanted to defend this book, you could point as that as a work of historiography (a topic that most ordinary people know almost nothing about), it's very interesting and informative, with lots of fascinating connections to contemporary culture ranging from I, Claudius to Freud to Black Athena. Which is true, except this isn't just some isolated book: it's the first volume in the Penguin History of Europe, a series that focuses mainly on social, cultural, religious, and political history; in other words, all the stuff Simon Price and his co-writer left out of this book! My guess is David Cannadine, the editor of the series, knew that Price was dying and didn't want to deny him the chance to finish this passion project before he kicked the bucket, even if it didn't really fit with the rest of the series. But I don't care. This a really good series and it doesn't deserve a off-topic passion project as an opener.
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- charles
- 11-04-23
So much history
As ever, there is never enough time to learn all that should be known. This book took me a little further.
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- Pat
- 12-21-22
Solid
I liked the inset boxes. It's a good book. If you are looking for a lot of narrative history, you will be very disappointed.
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- Sam
- 11-17-11
AWFUL boring dry and colourless
The narrator sounds like a bored zombie and the content is like a continuous boring text book read from start to finish with no connecting structure or any attempt no attempt to engage or interest the reader, don't waste your credits on this ancient rubbish more suited to boring 18thcentury school children to death!!
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- Bernadette Starling
- 01-20-22
highly recommended
scholarly without being turgid & impenetrable. the inset boxes really show the continuing influence of this early period on the present
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- An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian
- By: Robin Lane Fox
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 23 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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The classical civilizations of Greece and Rome once dominated the world, and they continue to fascinate and inspire us. Classical art and architecture, drama and epic, philosophy and politics - these are the foundations of Western civilization. In The Classical World, eminent classicist Robin Lane Fox brilliantly chronicles this vast sweep of history from Homer to the reign of Augustus.
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Homo-erotic classical history
- By Gail Norman on 04-28-23
By: Robin Lane Fox
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Empires of the Normans
- Makers of Europe, Conquerors of Asia
- By: Levi Roach
- Narrated by: Luke Thompson
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Empire of the Normans tells the extraordinary story of how the descendants of Viking marauders in northern France came to dominate European, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern politics. It is a tale of ambitious adventures and fierce pirates, of fortunes made and fortunes lost. Across the generations, the Normans made their influence felt across Western Europe and the Mediterranean, from the British Isles to North Africa, and even to the Holy Land, with a combination of military might, political savvy, deeply held religious beliefs, and a profound sense of their own destiny.
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pretty good
- By Amanda Gamez(Davis) on 12-13-22
By: Levi Roach
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Iron and Blood
- A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples Since 1500
- By: Peter H. Wilson
- Narrated by: Rory Alexander
- Length: 34 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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German military history is typically viewed as an inexorable march to the rise of Prussia and the two world wars, the road paved by militarism and the result a specifically German way of war. Peter Wilson challenges this narrative. Looking beyond Prussia to German-speaking Europe across the last five centuries, Wilson finds little unique or preordained in German militarism or warfighting. Iron and Blood takes as its starting point the consolidation of the Holy Roman Empire, which created new mechanisms for raising troops but also for resolving disputes diplomatically.
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Superb narration
- By Amazon Customer on 08-24-23
By: Peter H. Wilson
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The Thirty Years War
- Europe's Tragedy
- By: Peter H. Wilson
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 33 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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The Thirty Years War devastated seventeenth-century Europe, killing nearly a quarter of all Germans and laying waste to towns and countryside alike. Peter Wilson offers the first new history in a generation of a horrifying conflict that transformed the map of the modern world.
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Best Single-Volume History of the 30 Years' War
- By Amazon Customer on 10-09-23
By: Peter H. Wilson
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Europe
- A History
- By: Norman Davies
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 61 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Norman Davies captures it all - the rise and fall of Rome, the sweeping invasions of Alaric and Atilla, the Norman Conquests, the Papal struggles for power, the Renaissance and the Reformation, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, Europe's rise to become the powerhouse of the world, and its eclipse in our own century, following two devastating World Wars.
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My Favorite Historian
- By bernickus on 05-14-19
By: Norman Davies
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The Middle Kingdoms
- A New History of Central Europe
- By: Martyn Rady
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 22 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Central Europe has long been infamous as a region beset by war, a place where empires clashed and world wars began. In The Middle Kingdoms, Martyn Rady offers the definitive history of the region, demonstrating that Central Europe has always been more than merely the fault line between West and East. Even as Central European powers warred with their neighbors, the region developed its own cohesive identity and produced tremendous accomplishments in politics, society, and culture.
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Voice Edit
- By Josh Peterson on 08-28-23
By: Martyn Rady
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The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution: 1763-1789
- By: Robert Middlekauff
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The first book to appear in the illustrious Oxford History of the United States, this critically-acclaimed volume - a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize - offers an unsurpassed history of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the American republic.
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Strong History Rich With Behind The Scenes Details
- By John on 10-06-11
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Fatal Discord
- Erasmus, Luther, and the Fight for the Western Mind
- By: Michael Massing
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 34 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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This deeply textured dual biography and fascinating intellectual history examines two of the greatest minds of European history - Desiderius Erasmus and Martin Luther - whose heated rivalry gave rise to two enduring, fundamental, and often colliding traditions of philosophical and religious thought.
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Excellent work - up until the discussion of America
- By Michele Esposito on 08-24-19
By: Michael Massing
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The Enlightenment
- The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790
- By: Ritchie Robertson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 40 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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This magisterial history - sure to become the definitive work on the subject - recasts the Enlightenment as a period not solely consumed with rationale and reason, but rather as a pursuit of practical means to achieve greater human happiness.
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The quickest 40 hour audio book I’ve listen to
- By Joey Caster on 04-02-21
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Vanished Kingdoms
- The Rise and Fall of States and Nations
- By: Norman Davies
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 30 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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There is something profoundly romantic about lost civilizations. Davies peers through the cracks in the mainstream accounts of modern-day states to dazzle us with extraordinary stories of barely remembered pasts, and of the traces they left behind. This is Norman Davies at his best: sweeping narrative history packed with unexpected insights. Vanished Kingdoms will appeal to all fans of unconventional and thought-provoking history, from listeners of Niall Ferguson to Jared Diamond.
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needs a good editor.
- By Ryan Anderson on 09-25-21
By: Norman Davies
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The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume One
- By: Edward Gibbon
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 40 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Gibbon's masterpiece on Rome is a monument of literature and a model of modern historical research. There has never been anything quite like it since its publication between 1776 and 1788. Although some of Gibbon's views are considered controversial today, there is no doubt that his research and patient devotion to scholarship produced one of the most valuable and renowned histories of all time.
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the standard
- By Mark on 11-22-13
By: Edward Gibbon
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The Third Reich in History and Memory
- By: Richard J. Evans
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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In the 70 years since the demise of the Third Reich, there has been a significant t