The Spartans by Paul Cartledge, 1400078857, Lowest Book Price Finder

Customer Reviews:

Informative but poorly edited

Once again Paul Cartledge is let down by his (possible lack of) editor. This is a very informative book and brings together in a short paperback basically all extant information on ancient Sparta. Unlike "Alexander the Great" in the same series "The Spartans" almost follows a natural choronological timeline which makes it much easier to read. However the "Biographies" of certain personalties that are scattered throughout the book seriously disrupt this flow and are confusing and repetitive and the selection of the personalities is somewhat random, with major subjects omitted and obscure ones included. These should have been included as boxed text at most a page long.

Any sensible editor would have cut the rant in the epilogue. The author has a lengthy sophistic (in the modern sense) rebuttal of an obscure pamphlet on fox hunting. Apart from now sounding very dated it is ironically a great illustration of exactly what he spent a large part of the preceding book warning us about; namely that the contemporary prejudices of the teller must be taken into account when reading accounts of the past.

History was never so boring as this

I bought this book as a Christmas present to myself and after an enjoyable festive feast settled down in my favourite chair for a good read.

To say that I was bitterly disapointed with this book would be an understatement.
On opening the book the reader is immediately aware of the poor quality texture and appearance of the off-white paper which has a blotting paper feel to it which would be more appropriate in a paperback novel. In a hard-back book at this price is in my view unacceptable.Had I paid the full RR price of Â£18.99 I would have requested a refund on this basis alone.

A quick flick through the book revealed a strange and eclectic mix of colour & B&W images, some with frames some without, some like poorly exposed holiday snaps. My overall impression was one that these images were all that could be found and had been coddled together at the last moment with no thought given to uniformity of tone or layout. In a digital age this is simply inexcusable.

I tried to make a start with this book I really did but no matter where I started to read I just became bogged down in turgid, stodgy text that had no life, passion or direction to it at all. Another reviewer mentioned that it read like a first draft of a thesis that had not yet been proof read and that is exactly how it does read.

If you are looking for an informative and interesting read on The Spartans Do yourself a favour and look elsewhere.
Disapointed.

Want to know more about the Spartans than just the '300'?

This is an entirely readable, not to say enjoyable account of Spartan history, it explains their origins, development and culture in a simple way without any `dumbing down', and thus is very accessible to the reader unfamiliar with the people of the period.
I would counter the previous reviewers comment on the book as a `thesis draft': Cartledge has taught a Cambridge since the 70's and has honorary Spartan Citizenship for his contribution for telling it's history. So although not going to great lengths to give a highly detailed day to day chronological account of the minutiae of Spartan life for 400 years, it has indeed avoided dates upon dates, and used other sources in it's narrative - it is a scholarly work clearly intended primarily for the general reader with an interest in this era.
Read also Cartledge's `Thermopylae' for THE story of Spartan battle, or the fantastic `Persian Fire' by the brilliant Tom Holland.

seems like a thesis draft

Although this book does contain much nice detail on the history of Sparta and the Spartans, it seems like a first (and crude) draft of a thesis ... which has never passed through the hands of an editor. It may be good as an introduction to this topic, but most of this information can be found elsewhere.

There are several typo's throughout the book, including the names of some of the main "protagonists" Cartledge has chosen, as well as in figures accompanying the text. Further, he is inconsistent in providing dates - sometimes far too many, sometimes none at all.

It is filled with personal opinions on certain topics reflecting no more than the author's own bias - without considering these topics in their historical setting.

Much of the book is divided into "mini-chapters" based on famous (or popular) figures from history. This means that, rather focusing on a consistent historical time-line, the reader is forced to jump back and forth in Spartan history. This results in a lot of repetition ... often with no link to a previous mention of the event/persona, or even drawing different and/or opposing conclusions (again without reference to previous mentions of the topic). This makes it seem like Cartledge has simply copy & pasted from different undergraduate and postgraduate essays (presumably his own).

Added to this, huge chunks of chapters are dedicated to Cartledge delineating what he is setting out to do in a given chapter/section, rather than just getting to the point (and sometimes simply failing to accomplish what he is setting out to do).

This is a poor read.

Ideal

This book is ideal if you are thinking of, or are studyng AS Level Ancient History. It covers all the facts that you need to know about The Spartans, and also provides an interesting story for further reading. The book itself is easy to pick up and read, but difficult to put down again.

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