The Trojan War
A New History

Thought this would give me more historical info on the actual Trojan War. Turns out we don't know enough to fill a book, so a lot of this is padded out by a blow-by-blow retelling of the Iliad, which I definitely didn't need. Booooring. Someone recently asked me for my least favorite nonfiction books......more

This is not the book that I expected. Strauss, a fairly well-known Cornell historian, oscillates between historical fiction and a genuine history of the Trojan War. Part of the narrative is a retelling of the Iliad and speculative reconstruction of people and events, part discusses ancient sources a......more

I remember finding Barry Strauss' book on Spartacus entertaining and readable, which is probably why I asked for this for Christmas. I've always been interested in the Trojan War, and when it came to getting round to actually reading this I was a little hesitant -- I like my stories of cunning Odyss......more

This was such a nice book to read. Even though it is short, the author shows his depth of knowledge and succeeds at grounding the Trojan War on archaeological evidence- not only from Greece but also comparing the Greek and Trojan armies to other Bronze Age civilizations from the Near East such as Eg......more

This feels like it started out as an annotated edition of the Iliad, and then ballooned into its own book, but it's still an entertaining read. The Trojan War goes through the Iliad (and later, a few other sources), treats the sack of Troy as if it was a historic event (including characters - they p......more