The Birth of Classical Europe, Peter Thonemann
The Birth of Classical Europe, Peter Thonemann
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The Birth of Classical Europe
A History From Troy to Augustine

Author: Peter Thonemann, Simon Price

Narrator: Don Hagen

Unabridged: 14 hr 48 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 07/11/2011


Synopsis

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.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jamie on August 23, 2022

This book is volume one of the nine volume Penguin History of Europe series, whose other titles cover the Dark Ages; the High Middle Ages; the Renaissance; the Reformation; 1648-1815; 1815-1914; 1914-1949; and 1950-2017. What a long strange trip it’s been. In this book Simon Price traces civilization......more

Goodreads review by David on January 12, 2014

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......more

Goodreads review by Brian on November 20, 2023

Price and Thonemann treat history more like a report of scientific evidence than a discussion of human drama. Of course the data on pre-literate cultures is all physical, so the first two chapters are almost entirely detailed presentations of quantified data. To be strictly objective, the authors gi......more

Goodreads review by Ozymandias on January 21, 2023

Stories and Their Uses I’m going to start this review in a somewhat roundabout way by looking at the series as a whole and its competitors. I don’t see any way around this because I think that the book’s weaknesses (and strengths) come from the circumstances of its creation. So bear with me. Penguin i......more

Goodreads review by Justin on May 11, 2011

After reading two of the Penguin History of Europe volumes, which were bad and quite bad, why did I pick up this one? Honestly, because they're well designed and I love series. Luckily, this was much better than the other two. It's not in depth at all, but that's fine; that's the type of thing I wan......more