Norman Bancroft HuntRecensioni

C84PPVIQ

This book offers an adept overview of medieval times in Europe and includes superb illustrations throughout.

I enjoyed reading this book. It was easy reading but since I know very little about this part of the world I had the pleasure of learning a great deal. In 200 pages the book covers from Sumer to Islam, about 4,000 years. There were some very good maps which included large area maps and maps of cities. There were also some interesting diagrams of smaller areas such as palace compounds. The book was chock full of pictures of ruins and different types of art works.
The book is listed at 12" by 9" and the big pages made me feel a little bit like a kid reading a grownup's book. That contributed to the fun factor.
I thought the rise of Sumer was very interesting. The change from sedentary culture to cosmopolitan civilization reminded me of some of the material in Guns, Germs and Steel. There were many different cultures which occupied the area. Babylonia grew to be a city of 50,000, the largest city in the world at the time. There were a series of empires in Persia ending with the Sassassians. The Romans fought the Parthians and the Sassassians. Alexander the Great's Hellenistic civilization thrived in parts of this area.
It did seem like some of the maps could have been better. There were place names referred to that I could not find on the maps. Learning light with lots of maps and pictures, what fun! Another good part is that I can read it again because I didn't learn everything in the book.

The publisher Checkmark Books is part of Facts on File. Facts on File publishes The Cultural Atlas of Ancient Mesopotamia and the Near East. That book is written at a higher level of scholarship and does not cover as lengthy a period. This book showed me how interesting the history of that area is. I will have my eye out for a good deal on the Cultural Atlas.

Indian culture being rather impossible to actually understand or explain by any level of authority, this book has interesting insight and explanation on many issues amongst the confusion. This is especially true for such a limited narrative, more certainly than the many many coffee table books that proliferate and more succinct than the many publish or parish academics. I most likely give it more credit than it deserves, but it is over 30 years old and I get tired of all the expert drivel .

A simple children's book about life during the height of the Roman Empire, this history book is a perfect source of information that is simple and concise but still dense in relevant information. Easily an excellent source for someone looking for a simple but interesting overview of the life of the era, without getting too much into detail. Great as an introduction for people of all ages who are curious about Roman life, it goes into all aspects of their society: education, entertainment, family, politics, society, slavery, etc.

I would have to admit, this book probably put more of the Roman era into perspective than most of the history textbooks I have read, as it puts a human face to the period to give a sense of an actual moment in time, as opposed to just random names, facts, and dates that end up telling everything, but yet explaining nothing.

Highly recommended. You can read it while watching Gladiator!

The history of Mesopotamia has always been confusing with its multitude of city-states, empires, races and kings: Assyrians, Babylonians, Hittites, Sumerians and plenty of others. The scale of time between about 7000BC and 634AD (Islamic invasions) is unfathomable. So ironically enough this 97 page illustrated page book for young adults seemed like one way to approach problem of conceptualizing Mesopotamia.

The pictures and diagrams are gorgeous, the cutaways of buildings and cityscapes are informed by the latest archaeology, comparable with the kind of work done by David MacAulay or seen in a NatGeo magazine. The accompanying text is interesting but encyclopedic thus requiring some self-motivation through the dry parts. Each 2-page spread is self-contained so if you don't like the topic (food, religion, art, etc) it soon moves on. Overall it's a good balance of political and cultural, presented in a multi-media format that provides a modern introduction accessible to anyone.

Some interesting new things I learned: baklava, the honey/nut/pastry treat, was an Assyrian invention going back at least 3000 years (later borrowed by the Greeks); the wheel may have been invented based on potters wheels (ca. 3500); the Persians (modern Iran) and the Greeks descend from the same people (Aryans) who came out of central Asia between 1900-1500 BC.½