Wpl: Life in Ancient Athens

by Don Nardo

Discusses life in ancient Athens, including the growth of the city-state and its government, religious beliefs, festivals, customs, athletic games and sports, the visual arts, and the involvement of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1560064943
• ISBN13: 9781560064947
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Lucent Books
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.8" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 11 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 6 and higher

Customer Reviews

Excellent

Extremely well reserached and briskly written, this book provides both young people and general adult readers with an outstanding general overview of ancient Athenian society, culture, arts, religious festivals, athletics, warfare, and plenty more. Also, the author has done a fine job of selecting and editing primary and secondary source quotes that enliven the text while making it that much more authoritative. The large glossary and even larger bibliography are an added bonus in this excellent entry, which I highly recommend.

a terrific book

I really got a lot out of this little book, even though its written for kids. Stuff about the ancient world fascinates me, and this historian, Don Nardo, really knows how to explain things clearly and simply at the same time includes tons of interesting details. I recommend the book to everybody who like to read about ancient societies.

Historical Writing at Its Best

As a high school history teacher, I appreciate studies of ancient times that manage to cover the subject in appropriate detail and at the same time hold the reader's interest, particularly younger readers, who can be and often are turned off at the idea of studying about anything that happened before they were born. This volume, one of a recent series of studies of ancient Greece and Rome for young people by historian Don Nardo, perfectly blends factual, accurate information about ancient Athenian society with an easy-to-read, often lively writing style. The first chapter presents an excellent summary of the city and its people in the Bronze Age. Subsequent chapters cover Athens' growth over the centuries, the establishment of its political institutions, its homelife and social life, the role and status of women, religious beliefs and customs (with a riveting description of the yearly festival and sacrifices dedicated to the goddess Athena), athletic games, art and sculpture, and warfare. This is non-scholarly historical writing at its best and I recommend it highly to both history teachers and casual readers.