Synopses & Reviews
The Ancient World
A Social and Cultural History
Seventh Edition
D. Brendan Nagle
Generally recognized as the standard text for courses in the history of the ancient world, The Ancient World: A Social and Cultural History, Seventh Edition incorporates the latest scholarship and provides powerful learning aids for students:
• Striking new illustrations now enhance coverage of Persia, the early Greek classical period, and the late Roman Empire.
• Key Topics open each chapter, allowing students to easily discern important themes and developments.
• Review Questions close each chapter, helping students to critically assess the material they just read.
• A Glossary of key terms appears at the end of the text.
Synopsis
This comprehensive chronicle of the history of the ancient Mediterranean (from Sumer to the fall of Rome) explores the distinctive forms society took in the ancient world–especially the unusual relationship between society and the state (unlike anything we encounter today) that characterized the social order of antiquity. By closely integrating social and cultural histories with the political, institutional, and military climates in which they unfolded, this book provides fascinating insights into family, gender relations, class structures, public vs. private realms, slavery, popular culture, religion, art, architecture, leisure styles, philosophy, science, and education–and their complex relationships to ideology and political events. An excellent resource for anyone interested in politics and culture; this book is a font of information; if we understand the past, we can understand the changes that politics and society have undergone, and the reasons for those changes.
Synopsis
For courses in Ancient History (Ancient Near East - Egypt/Mesopotamia), Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome.
The Ancient World is a comprehensive, multi-perspective, and integrated chronicle of the history of the ancient world, from Sumer to the fall of Rome, that explores the distinctive forms society took--particularly the unusual (by the standards of college students today) relationships between society and the state that characterized the social order of antiquity.
By closely integrating social and cultural histories with the political, institutional, and military climates in which they unfolded, this text provides fascinating insights into family, gender relations, class structures, public vs. private realms, slavery, popular culture, religion, art, architecture, leisure styles, philosophy, science, and education, and explores their complex relationships to ideology and political events.
About the Author
D. Brendan Nagle, University of Southern California
Stanley M. Burstein, California State University, Los Angeles
Table of Contents
Preface
Maps
PART ONE: THE ANCIENT MIDDLE EAST
Chapter 1: The Early Civilization of Mesopotamia and Egypt
Why Mesopotamia?
The Agricultural Revolution
The State and Urban Revolution
Early Mesopotamian History: The Sumerian Period (3100—2000 B.C.)
The Egyptian Alternative: The Old and Middle Kingdoms
Chapter 2: An Age of Empires: The Middle East, 2000—1000 B.C.
A Time of Turmoil: New Peoples East and West
Mesopotamia in the Age of Hammurapi
The Hittite Empire
The Egyptian Empire
Egypt in Decline
Chapter 3: The Middle East to the Persian Empire
The New Peoples of the Middle East
The Glory of Assyria and Babylon
The Persians
Religion and Culture in Israel
PART TWO: THE GREEK WORLD
Chapter 4: The Emergence of Greek Civilization
Geography and History
The Origins of Greek Culture
The Minoan and Mycenaean Ages
The Mycenaean Age
The Dark Ages
Out of the Darkness: The Archaic Age
The Example of Two Cities: Sparta and Athens
Polis Society
Culture and Society in the Archaic Age
Chapter 5: The Wars of the Greeks
Persians and Greeks
The Military Situation after the Persian Wars
The Great War between Athens and Sparta
The Hegemony of Sparta and Thebes
Chapter 6: Classical Athens
The Early Classical Period (ca. 490—450 B.C.)
The Classical Age, Part I (450—430 B.C.)
The Later Classical Period (430—338 B.C.)
Athenian Society
Chapter 7: Philip, Alexander, and the Hellenistic World
Backward Macedonia Challenges Greece
The Genius of Philip
The Orator and the King: Demosthenes and Philip
Alexander the Great
Campaigns in Central Asia (330—323 B.C.)
Alexander’s Successors
The State and Society in the Hellenistic World
Hellenistic Society
Culture and Religion in the Hellenistic World
Greek High Culture Adapts to a New Environment
Becoming Greek: Education in the New World
The Hellenistic