A Brief History of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society, and Culture

Ancient Greece was never one country with one story. The fortified palaces of the Bronze Age, the rival city-states of Athens and Sparta, the campaigns of Alexander and the kingdoms that followed him belonged to very different Greek worlds. A Brief History of Ancient Greece follows those changes without treating political battles as the whole of history.

The six historians bring households, religion, art, work and social divisions into the same account as war, law and government. Their fourth-edition survey begins with the Aegean Bronze Age, follows the growth and rivalries of the poleis, and continues through the Hellenistic kingdoms into the period of Roman power. Archaeological evidence and written sources both matter here, allowing the reader to see not just what happened, but how historians know—and how the experiences of ordinary people fit into a long, changing history.