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Tired White Man Bad Pop History

Revisado: 03-03-25

Really annoyed I spent a credit on this. I wish I had realized it was going to be such a stereotypical portrayal of white eurocentric history bad, while everyone else is given an overly generous benefit of the doubt. The professor makes no effort to disguise her disdain for "white men in positions of power", even in locations where it is completely logical for the populace to be white like England. Her grasp of the Catholic church and its intricacies is weak. She's weirdly complimentary of genghis khan. I believe her statement in her intro is that he might have been the greatest human to ever live? The pillaging, murder, and rape that was part of the mongol history was glossed over completely. Oh and the reason the Mongols didn't conquer Europe - climate change made their own lands more desirable so they just decided to go home. Absolutely embarrassing. I certainly won't be listening to any of her other works and I'm not sure when I'll try a Great Courses series again.

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Not My Favorite, But Not Terrible

Revisado: 04-16-22

I think this book really works best when read instead of being heard. The switches between storylines would have made sense if each chapter started with a map with numbered dots on it showing where each faction was. Breaking each chapter, which was only noted by a number i.e. 4 instead of Chapter 4, into smaller also numbered groups was a bit confusing to listen to.


I also found myself incredibly annoyed with some of the word pronunciations by the narrator. Perdicas which was pronounced per-dih-cuss in the last book I listened too was this time pronounced per-DEEK-ass. I couldn't tell you which pronunciation is correct, but I found the change so frustrating, I was rooting for the character to hurry up and die so I wouldn't have to hear his name anymore. Other words got some strange treatment as well. For instance hegemony, which I've only heard pronounced hedge-E-moan-E was pronounced as He-jiminy (think Jiminy crickets). Again, that may be an accepted pronunciation, but I found it odd.


Finally, the further we got into the story, the less I felt like the author was disclosing when sources contradicted, and was just going with whichever theory fit the story he was telling. I know there are a lot of holes in the records of that time, but I prefer for those things to be disclosed, rather than have a theory presented as the truth. Other books I've read make it clear that much of the story surrounding Olympas is unverifiable, and that the Greeks wrote scathingly about her because they despised a woman trying to take a prominent role. At no point is that mentioned in this book and every act that has been attributed to her is presented as historically, verifiably done by her.


All in all, not terrible, but I won't be searching out more books by the author of the narrator.

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Fantastic Book on Alexander and Phillip

Revisado: 04-12-22

This was a gripping story. I listened to the whole thing in 3 days because I was fascinated. I am working my way through ancient Greek history and looked at several books on Alexander after finishing Xenophons works. Most of the books on Alexander seem to fall into two pitfalls that disinterested me. 1. A seriously bizarre and creepy obsession with his personal relationships/ sex life and 2. Not disclosing that many accounts of Alexander are contradictory and unverifiable.

Adrian Goldsworthy did a fantastic job of clearly stating when accounts contradicted each other, and was insistent about not pushing something as fact that was unproven, given the passing of time and lack of evidence. I appreciate this approach, as I wanted to know the history of this time period, as accurately as possible. Additionally, I was unaware of just how much Phillip did to set the stage for Alexander. That portion of the book was completely new information and very much appreciated. Given how little remains of ancient authors works to tell Phillips story, there was still a good amount of the book dedicated to him. I also appreciated the lack of 21st century judgement of the actions of someone so far removed from us. While the realization of so many lives lost often needlessly is in itself horrifying, the author leaves those kinds of things largely up to the listener to ruminate on.


Finally, I found the narrator, Neil Dickson, pleasant to listen to, with good pronunciation and delivery. I would definitely choose another book read by him.

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Enjoyable and Informative

Revisado: 04-10-22

I really liked this one. The story was interesting and I enjoy this narrator's delivery. Of the Ancient Greek stories, this one is easier to get through than most, both due to its length and the story content which moves along nicely. Xenophon was an interesting character who lived in a tumultuous time.

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An Incomplete Collection of Speeches

Revisado: 03-19-22

My grasp of ancient Greek history is vague at best, so I am using audible's collection of stories from that era to educate myself. I started with Herodutus's Histories and then proceeded to this title. Here are a few things I wish I had know:
One, while the Peloponnesian Wars lasted for 30 years, this book only covers the first 21. It isnt the author's fault that he presumably died before he could complete his work, but it does end abruptly, which is jarring. Also, Thucydides was Athenian, and his bias, while understandable, is readily apparent through most of the story.
Second, at least 60% of this book is speeches given to persuade factions to join an alliance, break an alliance, overthrow a government, or strive for success in battle. So be prepared for more oratory than a recitation of events.
Third, I know I didn't retain a lot of the information in this story. To really grasp it you would need large maps of the country at the time, and some old school felt boards with cities and prominent people printed on cards so you could move them every time an alliance changed.

I still know more than I did when I started, and forcing myself not to zone out during some of the speeches was good mental discipline practice. The narrator had a pleasant voice.

Takeaway: The Greeks of this period would fight each other over anything, saw no dichotomy between calling themselves lovers of freedom while enslaving people, changed alliances with the weather, and were extremely prejudiced about whether one was Dorian or Ionian. I can see why their gifts of oratory are still known today, but I was relieved when I could check this book off as "Complete".

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