The Pelican History of Greece

This is a relatively comprehensive overview of Greek history spanning between the Minoan years on Crete of 2000-1400 BC, through Classical Greece to the diminishment of Ancient Greek society and culture under Roman expansion. Separate chapters deal with the different eras of history, and include

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the major people, trends, and events of importance: the Heroic age, the Persian wars, the lyric playwrights, the pre-Socratic philisophers, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Athenian democracy, Alexander the Great, and lots of warring between independent Greek states throughout.
As a readable history of Greece this does well in including not only the military and social history, but also the cultural phenomena of philosophy, literature, politics, and drama - all of which the Greeks excelled in. At around 400 pages including a few maps, this is a good overview of a lot of different topics which deserve whole shelves of books in their own right, and how they fit together historically. For readability the quality is not bad, and so this would make a good introduction to Greek history in general.

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