What do you think?
Rate this book
The Pelican History of Greece
The Penguin History of Greece offers a one-volume history of Hellas, & is principally written for the reader who isn't a student or expert in classical literature. Readable, erudite, enthusiastic & balanced, it sweeps the reader along from the days of Mycenae to the splendors of Athens & to the conquests of Alexander & the last dark ages, ably pinpointing the culture, society & politics of an astonishing people.
415 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1965
15 people are currently reading
168 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
January 18, 2014
Though there are probably better primers on Ancient Greece around, this one, by A.R. Burn does an adequate job.
The negative points first. The prose style is sometimes convoluted, with long, confusing sentences. The maps are terrible. Using the same line weight for rivers and coastlines, no shading for land or sea, and gaps where place names cross a line mean it's often hard to tell what's sea and what's land. This is particularly problematic if you're like me, with a shaky grasp of places in the ancient world and geography in general. For a book that talks quite a lot about art and design, it could really do with some pictures.
It's a distinctly traditional and old-fashioned history book, first written in 1965 and revised up to 1985. You'd think that not much would change in the field of archaeology, but it seems they're always busy digging new stuff up, so I wonder what new discoveries and interpretations have been made in the last 30 years. After reading Braudel's The Mediterranean in the Ancient World with its emphasis on geography, resources and trade, the contrast is sharp. That said, both books share a common weakness, which is a lack of numbers - how large were greek cities, what were the volumes of trade...? Of course, these are hard things to estimate at two to three thousand years' remove, but they're also important to understand.
Burn makes quite a lot of aesthetic value judgements in the book that feel a bit out of place in a history. It's an interesting counterbalance, though, a reminder that Greece is just as important in art as in philosophy or the history of countries and empires. To tell that history you have to make (or report) judgements about the qualities of works of art, and the values they represent.
The book is, not unreasonably, a lot more interested in Athens than Sparta or other areas, leading to some significant gaps. For example, the shrinking of the Spartiate class is one of the key issues for Sparta, and Burn leaves it completely unexplained.
Moving on to the positives, the core of this book is probably its history of the achievements (and flaws) of Athens. I was particularly struck by the relative leniency shown to Athens by its conquerors. Is that what an great power should aim for? That even when it declines it keeps the admiration of its conquerors? (Or is an imperial power likely to be admired by another imperial power - provided their struggle isn't too difficult - with both looking down on those less successful in politics, war and commerce?)
The Penguin History of Greece assumes very little prior knowledge. Some basics like knowing what a hoplite is (for some reason Burn usually calls them "armoured infantry" but occasionally "hoplite") and how they fought would be useful. Some basic geography as well - you can't understand the strength of Macedonia without knowing that it and Thessaly are better country for raising horses (and thus cavalry) than most of Hellas. Aside from that, newcomers will probably get lost in all the different names of places and people, but that's hard to avoid. The book is pretty good as an introduction, without being tedious for those who know a bit about Ancient Greece already.
After discussing the achievements and failures of the Greeks, Burn covers their conquest by Rome, positioned as a tragic end. The prose occasionally rises to an emotive level, such as in the following (although this also demonstrates some of the negatives of Burn's style):
"Roman Law and the Roman peace were the institutions which kept the ring while, with order and dignity, the richest grew richer and the rest grew poorer; until the government no longer trusted the people, and the poor regarded with apathy or worse the coming of barbarians other than those in the imperial forces."
If you want a primer on the history of Ancient Greece, and you come across the Penguin History, give it a read. I wouldn't search it out specifically though - there are probably better and more up-to-date (or even better and less up-to-date) books around.
The negative points first. The prose style is sometimes convoluted, with long, confusing sentences. The maps are terrible. Using the same line weight for rivers and coastlines, no shading for land or sea, and gaps where place names cross a line mean it's often hard to tell what's sea and what's land. This is particularly problematic if you're like me, with a shaky grasp of places in the ancient world and geography in general. For a book that talks quite a lot about art and design, it could really do with some pictures.
It's a distinctly traditional and old-fashioned history book, first written in 1965 and revised up to 1985. You'd think that not much would change in the field of archaeology, but it seems they're always busy digging new stuff up, so I wonder what new discoveries and interpretations have been made in the last 30 years. After reading Braudel's The Mediterranean in the Ancient World with its emphasis on geography, resources and trade, the contrast is sharp. That said, both books share a common weakness, which is a lack of numbers - how large were greek cities, what were the volumes of trade...? Of course, these are hard things to estimate at two to three thousand years' remove, but they're also important to understand.
Burn makes quite a lot of aesthetic value judgements in the book that feel a bit out of place in a history. It's an interesting counterbalance, though, a reminder that Greece is just as important in art as in philosophy or the history of countries and empires. To tell that history you have to make (or report) judgements about the qualities of works of art, and the values they represent.
The book is, not unreasonably, a lot more interested in Athens than Sparta or other areas, leading to some significant gaps. For example, the shrinking of the Spartiate class is one of the key issues for Sparta, and Burn leaves it completely unexplained.
Moving on to the positives, the core of this book is probably its history of the achievements (and flaws) of Athens. I was particularly struck by the relative leniency shown to Athens by its conquerors. Is that what an great power should aim for? That even when it declines it keeps the admiration of its conquerors? (Or is an imperial power likely to be admired by another imperial power - provided their struggle isn't too difficult - with both looking down on those less successful in politics, war and commerce?)
The Penguin History of Greece assumes very little prior knowledge. Some basics like knowing what a hoplite is (for some reason Burn usually calls them "armoured infantry" but occasionally "hoplite") and how they fought would be useful. Some basic geography as well - you can't understand the strength of Macedonia without knowing that it and Thessaly are better country for raising horses (and thus cavalry) than most of Hellas. Aside from that, newcomers will probably get lost in all the different names of places and people, but that's hard to avoid. The book is pretty good as an introduction, without being tedious for those who know a bit about Ancient Greece already.
After discussing the achievements and failures of the Greeks, Burn covers their conquest by Rome, positioned as a tragic end. The prose occasionally rises to an emotive level, such as in the following (although this also demonstrates some of the negatives of Burn's style):
"Roman Law and the Roman peace were the institutions which kept the ring while, with order and dignity, the richest grew richer and the rest grew poorer; until the government no longer trusted the people, and the poor regarded with apathy or worse the coming of barbarians other than those in the imperial forces."
If you want a primer on the history of Ancient Greece, and you come across the Penguin History, give it a read. I wouldn't search it out specifically though - there are probably better and more up-to-date (or even better and less up-to-date) books around.
April 24, 2024
How does one make classical Greece, one of the great flowerings of world civilization, insufferable? By writing this book. It's awful, lacking a unifying thesis and getting bogged down in pointless, context-free detail. Here are a sample two sentences--and I could have picked hundreds like or worse than them: "But it was a worse peace for the Spartans. They got back their men, and promise of Pylos and Kythera against a promise of Amphiboles and no reprisals against the mainland rebels in Chalkidike." And this from the section on the incomparable Thucydides!
Who wants to read this drivel? The only reason I gutted my way through is because I've had this volume on my shelf for 30 years. Someday I should learn to heed the counsel of my undergraduate director of Protestant campus ministries, who once told me, "If I start reading a classic and it's boring, I just stop." This isn't a classic. And it's boring. Don't even start.
Who wants to read this drivel? The only reason I gutted my way through is because I've had this volume on my shelf for 30 years. Someday I should learn to heed the counsel of my undergraduate director of Protestant campus ministries, who once told me, "If I start reading a classic and it's boring, I just stop." This isn't a classic. And it's boring. Don't even start.
September 18, 2022
Such interesting stories, told so poorly.
Bonus: confusing maps!
Bonus: confusing maps!
April 4, 2025
This is a thorough, well researched (for its time - 1982) history of Greece, from pre-history to just past the death of Alexander. There is a lot of information, but sometimes the narrative gets lost in the weeds and we lose track of the big picture. If I weren't an amateur history buff, the text may not have kept me engaged until the end.
October 5, 2022
I couldn't find a single photo of the author. For some reason that struck me as melancholy and unfair. A highly readable history of Greece, probably lying in a forgotten pile at your local used bookstore.
October 7, 2024
(2) complex, inaccessible, and at times impossible to understand, Burn somehow knits together a factual history of Greece without any historical substance
May 2, 2022
Ancient Greece really needs an encyclopedia so getting through it in a 400 page paperback was pretty impressive, telling me who did what when - the writers, thinkers, leaders. I now know the great gulf of time between Pythagoras and Archimedes, for example, while Sophocles and Socrates more or less rubbed shoulders. But it also covers prehistory, the Bronze age and Homer, and the eventual decline of Greece as the new empire of Rome emerged.
The author describes the emergence of Greek drama from religious rituals, and the slow development of philosophy, along varied paths. We see the movement from magical to logical thinking, and the rise of humanistic ideas as the complexities of human beings began to be understood as truly human qualities rather than being projected out into supernatural forces.
We are dealing with city states: I often got lost in the military and political manoeuvres but the detail is there if you want it. The book constantly reminded me of how ancient Greece founded western culture: words and concepts we take for granted are constantly popping up through the text, in their original forms and contexts.
Some reviewers complain about the long winded sentences. I didn't find that. But I agree that the maps are a disappointment. The book would work well alongside web resources.
The author describes the emergence of Greek drama from religious rituals, and the slow development of philosophy, along varied paths. We see the movement from magical to logical thinking, and the rise of humanistic ideas as the complexities of human beings began to be understood as truly human qualities rather than being projected out into supernatural forces.
We are dealing with city states: I often got lost in the military and political manoeuvres but the detail is there if you want it. The book constantly reminded me of how ancient Greece founded western culture: words and concepts we take for granted are constantly popping up through the text, in their original forms and contexts.
Some reviewers complain about the long winded sentences. I didn't find that. But I agree that the maps are a disappointment. The book would work well alongside web resources.
March 26, 2011
After reading a lot of historical fiction set in ancient Greece I felt it was time to refresh my memory of the actual history. This volume covers it all in a clear, erudite but not academic, sometimes enjoyably snarky but mostly balanced voice. It conveys the cultural scene of ancient Greece well, but feels rather old-fashioned (lots of aesthetic judgmentalism about Greek art!) and I suspect some of the facts are outdated. (At least, I know that the archaeological evidence has been added to and reinterpreted.) Still, a good survey for the general reader.
November 12, 2015
The book was especially interesting to me because my paternal grandparents came from Greece and we happened to be on a trip to Greece when I started reading it (Santorini, Mykynos, and Athens). However, the book is in need of a thorough editing. Many of the sentences are so convoluted that it makes it difficult to understand. I rated it a "3" because I enjoyed learning the history and the author is very knowledgeable.
December 31, 2016
3 stars for the author's scholarship. Originally published 1965; the narrative is dated. Long, convoluted sentences confuse the reader; line drawn maps using same line for coastline & country borders made my brain hurt. But the breadth of knowledge in this book is astonishing. Everything from ancient Greek academia through philosophy to wars. In detail!
I wonder if any of the 'Young Travellers', to whom Burn dedicates this book, actually read it!
I wonder if any of the 'Young Travellers', to whom Burn dedicates this book, actually read it!
December 10, 2025
Just pulled this at random from the 'books for sale' bookcase.
But the writing style is too dense to read - gave up!
But the writing style is too dense to read - gave up!
May 24, 2012
Good overall background of Greek history, but the writing leaves much to be desired. Some of his sentences seem to rival those of Marcel Proust (for their length). Still a comprehensive history of ancient Greece.
Read
March 19, 2010The Pelican History of Greece by A.R. Burn (1982)
April 5, 2017
A concise little primer on Greece.
July 5, 2014
Ignore the other bad reviews Burn writes excellently I wouldn't mind being at his lectures back then
December 15, 2016
Very good summary of the Ancient Greece history, covering all periods until the closing of Athens' academy by Justinian
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews