anyone know some great books about ancient greece stuff?
i'm reading this and it's mediocre. 60 pages in.
The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World
author is kinda dumb
he doesn't know when he's making shit up vs. reporting facts very well
he doesn't know when to quote or reference other authors
he doesn't know what quotes or facts to include or not very well
he knows some stuff about greece. he knows what lots of scholars have written. he's summarizing lots of ideas. there's something good about that
i think he actually sorta likes multiple conflicting opinions at the same time
and there's something bad about that
but it helps him report more than just his personal biases
controversies can be interesting but i don't think he understands when to reject stuff as bad vs. consider it reasonable alternative possibility
he's bad at speculating about the motives of ancient social change and says some modern trendy lefty shit
that's one of the sadder things. he has travelled aroudn greece, spent his life studying it ... and doesn't recognize how much he's projecting modern notions on them
something that stood out was the white pillars like for parthenon are europoean invention
from like 1800s when revival of greece and finding its art was popular in europe
revival of greece the idea, not greece the country
he said the greeks painted stuff
and the euro recreations made it white
the parthenon ppl visit is really inaccurate in other ways
so the ottoman empire controlled the area
and built a mosque and a bunch of other buildings
and then greek independence and they tear that down and restore/rebuild some greek structures
and they left the area sparse with a few temples
and the original in ancient greece wasn't just a sparse tourist monument to look at, it was a functional part of life and there was stuff all over
1999 book. there's no ebook (lame for that recent!) so it's slow reading :/
this review has some good points in it
ppl who buy and read a book like that, and it's not for a school class, are a pretty promising group for someone who could be my audience. there are a lot of ppl like that (tens of thousands?) even tho it's not a big portion of the population.
i think they are mostly older ppl
not so many 20yos inclined to read that book. or others like it. or FoR as i read when i was 18. but still some.
school reading is one of the big blockers. puts ppl off reading and uses up their patience for reading scholarly works.
social life is another issue