The Rise of Athens: The Story of the World's Greatest Civilization By Anthony Everitt

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Rating: 8.9 (5691 reviews)
Author: Anthony Everitt

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A magisterial account of how a tiny city-state in ancient Greece became history’s most influential civilization, from the bestselling author of acclaimed biographies of Cicero, Augustus, and Hadrian Filled with tales of adventure and astounding reversals of fortune, The Rise of Athens celebrates the city-state that transformed the world—from the democratic revolution that marked its beginning, through the city’s political and cultural golden age, to its decline into the ancient equivalent of a modern-day university town. Anthony Everitt constructs his history with unforgettable portraits of the talented, tricky, ambitious, and unscrupulous Athenians who fueled the city’s rise: Themistocles, the brilliant naval strategist who led the Greeks to a decisive victory over their Persian enemies; Pericles, arguably the greatest Athenian statesman of them all; and the wily Alcibiades, who changed his political allegiance several times during the course of the Peloponnesian War—and died in a hail of assassins’ arrows. Here also are riveting you-are-there accounts of the milestone battles that defined the Hellenic world: Thermopylae, Marathon, and Salamis among them. An unparalleled storyteller, Everitt combines erudite, thoughtful historical analysis with stirring narrative set pieces that capture the colorful, dramatic, and exciting world of ancient Greece. Although the history of Athens is less well known than that of other world empires, the city-state’s allure would inspire Alexander the Great, the Romans, and even America’s own Founding Fathers. It’s fair to say that the Athenians made possible the world in which we live today. In this peerless new work, Anthony Everitt breathes vivid life into this most ancient story.Praise for The Rise of Athens“[An] invaluable history of a foundational civilization . . . combining impressive scholarship with involving narration.”—Booklist “Compelling . . . a comprehensive and entertaining account of one of the most transformative societies in Western history . . . Everitt recounts the high points of Greek history with flair and aplomb.”—Shelf Awareness “Highly readable . . . Everitt keeps the action moving.”—Kirkus Reviews Praise for Anthony Everitt’s The Rise of Rome “Rome’s history abounds with remarkable figures. . . . Everitt writes for the informed and the uninformed general reader alike, in a brisk, conversational style, with a modern attitude of skepticism and realism.”—The Dallas Morning News “[A] lively and readable account . . . Roman history has an uncanny ability to resonate with contemporary events.”—Maclean’s “Elegant, swift and faultless as an introduction to his subject.”—The Spectator “An engrossing history of a relentlessly pugnacious city’s 500-year rise to empire.”—Kirkus Reviews “Fascinating history and a great read.”—Chicago Sun-Times

At this time of writing, The Audiobook The Rise of Athens: The Story of the World's Greatest Civilization has garnered 10 customer reviews with rating of 5 out of 5 stars. Not a bad score at all as if you round it off, it’s actually a perfect TEN already. From the looks of that rating, we can say the Audiobook is Good TO READ!

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Bought from and review first posted on the UK site a few minutes ago...This is a well-written and entertaining book that has been put together by an author who has thoroughly researched his topic. It is targeted at so-called “general reader”, writing so-called “popular history” and eminently accessible. It is also sufficiently well done that you do not realise at first glance to what extent the title does not really reflect the book’s contents in two main respects.One is that the book is not only about the “Rise of Athens”. It is also includes about a hundred pages on Athens after the Long War, and therefore after the fall of Athens and its surrender to the Spartans. This “long farewell” – which is fact rather short when compared to the total size of the book - summarises the fourth century Athens up to the defeat of Chaeronea against Philip the King of Macedonia during which the once leading city of Greece struggled and failed to restore its past glory and hegemony. The last chapter is about how Athens was reduced into what a Byzantine bishop of the late 12th century termed a “God forsaken hole”.A second point is that much of the book is in fact not so much about Athens as it is about the interactions between Athens, Sparta and the Persian Empire, to the extent that this reads at times more as a history of classical Greece than as a book centred on Athens even if the two other protagonist are treated in less detail. Having mentioned these points, it is also fair to state that they do not necessarily limit the book’s value. Whether you find this book valuable or not, and to what extent, will largely depend upon what you are looking for.Although the narrative has gaps at times, the author’s approach is to tell his stories by focusing on some of the main characters involved. The technique is a powerful one which makes for a lively and entertaining read and you can almost see each of the main Athenian characters – Solon, Pisistratus, Cleisthenes, Miltiades, Aristide, Themistocles, Pericles, Cleon, Alcibiades, Demosthenes and others stepping on the stage and coming under the spotlights for the author’s description and review. A similar technique is used for the major playwrights (Aeschylus, Euripides, Aristophanes etc…) with their main works being related to the political events that were happening at the time.I therefore entirely agree with the comments of another reviewer about the author’s narrative being at its strongest on political history. I would even stress that it is mainly that, with the author’s somewhat utopic enthusiasm in addition. There is comparatively little on the economy and trade of Athens or on every day and living conditions, perhaps because long developments on these social and economic conditions would disrupt the flow and make for a less entertaining and slower book. Moreover, what little there is relates to politics and strategy, in particular Athens need to control access to the Black Sea from which the indispensable grain fleets arrived, or her interest for Egypt or Sicily, two other “breadbaskets”, for similar reasons. There is little about what goods Athens had to other in exchange, about trading routes or about Athens monetary economy and the extent to which Athens’ “owls” (its silver drachmas) became the international currency and the equivalent of the British Pound or the US Dollar during the 20th century.Another feature of this book is the endearing, but perhaps also questionable, enthusiasm displayed by the author when he writes about Athens’ direct democracy. While he does mention some of its limits, such as the fact that the pool of citizens excluded foreigners, women and slaves, he does indeed take Pericles’ funeral oration and panegyric of the Athenian democracy at face value without seeming to realise that it did not exactly work as intended. He also largely glosses over the fact that Pericles’ own longevity and dominance corresponded to the Athens’ “Golden Age” and a period of stability than his (mostly) less talented successors would fail to maintain. A discussion on whether and to what extent Pericles’ ability maintain himself for so long as Athens strongman and dominate the city was compatible with real and radical Athenian democracy is entirely missing. So is an objective analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of such a regime, how instable it could be and how much it encouraged stasis, with the author enthusiastically believing it to be believe possible (or even ideal) nowadays thanks to electronic voting.Four stars for a good introduction, despite some limitations.

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Audio Book The Rise of Athens: The Story of the World's Greatest Civilization with Free PDF EDITION Download Now!

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PDF The Rise of Athens: The Story of the World's Greatest Civilization with Free PDF EDITION Download Now!

PDF The Rise of Athens: The Story of the World's Greatest Civilization with Free PDF EDITION!

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