A propulsive, large-scale history of ancient Greece, written with an authority to rival Thucydides.
Arms and the men.
Athens and Sparta were two of the many city-states that emerged in the seventh through the fifth centuries B.C.E., in the Greek peninsula. Historians have long seen them as the chalk and cheese of ancient polities: Athens, with its participatory democracy, its flourishing public theater, and its maritime ambitions; Sparta, with its hierarchical militarism, its strong men, and its cultivation of the body. Historian and novelist Goldsworthy (Caesar, 2006; Augustus, 2014; Rome and Persia, 2023) presents a far more subtle version of Greek history beyond these simple dualisms. He begins with the beginning, with Crete and Mycenae, with palace powers and then, with Homeric memories of war and heroism. What did it mean to be Greek in the ancient world? How did a group of disparate communities, sharing a language but differing in dialects and social customs, shape what we think of, now, as Greek identity? Rather than making a case primarily on essentials—something about the “Greek Way” or the imagined soul of a people—Goldsworthy writes a history of relations. What made Athens and Sparta were the wars with Persia. The Spartan suicidal defiance at the Battle of Thermopylae or the Athenian defeat of the Persian fleet were defining moments. And then, they fought among themselves. The last third of the book retells the Peloponnesian Wars, with sharply etched portraits of great leaders, such as Pericles and Phormio. There are moments when we may as well be reading of our own time as theirs: “Frightened people can readily turn to savagery.” This may well be the motto for this history—that for all the arts of Athens or the spears of Sparta, fear can wreck society far more than arms.
A propulsive, large-scale history of ancient Greece, written with an authority to rival Thucydides.Pub Date: May 12, 2026
ISBN: 9781541619982
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
The Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist (1900–45) collected his work from WWII in two bestselling volumes, this second published in 1944, a year before Pyle was killed by a sniper’s bullet on Okinawa. In his fine introduction to this new edition, G. Kurt Piehler (History/Univ. of Tennessee at Knoxville) celebrates Pyle’s “dense, descriptive style” and his unusual feel for the quotidian GI experience—a personal and human side to war left out of reporting on generals and their strategies. Though Piehler’s reminder about wartime censorship seems beside the point, his biographical context—Pyle was escaping a troubled marriage—is valuable. Kirkus, at the time, noted the hoopla over Pyle (Pulitzer, hugely popular syndicated column, BOMC hype) and decided it was all worth it: “the book doesn’t let the reader down.” Pyle, of course, captures “the human qualities” of men in combat, but he also provides “an extraordinary sense of the scope of the European war fronts, the variety of services involved, the men and their officers.” Despite Piehler’s current argument that Pyle ignored much of the war (particularly the seamier stuff), Kirkus in 1944 marveled at how much he was able to cover. Back then, we thought, “here’s a book that needs no selling.” Nowadays, a firm push might be needed to renew interest in this classic of modern journalism.
Pub Date: April 26, 2001
ISBN: 0-8032-8768-2
Page Count: 513
Publisher: Univ. of Nebraska
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2001
An erudite guide to the biblical world.
Revelations from the Old Testament.
“The Bible has no rivals when it comes to the art of omission, of not saying what everyone would like to know,” observes Calasso (1941-2021), the acclaimed Italian publisher, translator, and explorer of myth, gods, and sacred ritual. In this probing inquiry into biblical mysteries, the author meditates on the complexities and contradictions of key events and figures. He examines the “enigmatic nature” of original sin in Genesis, an anomaly occurring in no other creation myth; God’s mandate of circumcision for all Jewish men; and theomorphism in the form of Adam: a man created in the image of the god who made him. Among the individuals Calasso attends to in an abundantly populated volume are Saul, the first king of Israel; the handsome shepherd David, his successor; David’s son Solomon, whose relatively peaceful reign allowed him “to look at the world and study it”; Moses, steeped in “law and vengeance,” who incited the slaughter of firstborn sons; and powerful women, including the Queen of Sheba (“very beautiful and probably a witch”), Jezebel, and the “prophetess” Miriam, Moses’ sister. Raging throughout is Yahweh, a vengeful God who demands unquestioned obedience to his commandments. “Yahweh was a god who wanted to defeat other gods,” Calasso writes. “I am a jealous God,” Yahweh proclaims, “who punishes the children for the sins of their fathers, as far as the third and fourth generations.” Conflicts seemed endless: During the reigns of Saul and David, “war was constant, war without and war within.” Terse exchanges between David and Yahweh were, above all, “military decisions.” David’s 40-year reign was “harrowing and glorious,” marked by recurring battles with the Philistines. Calasso makes palpable schisms and rivalries, persecutions and retributions, holocausts and sacrifices as tribal groups battled one another to form “a single entity”—the people of Israel.
An erudite guide to the biblical world.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-374-60189-8
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
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