The Greeks: A Portrait of Self and Others by Paul Cartledge

The Greeks: A Portrait of Self and Others Reviews

• 
  Seren

  I enjoyed the guy’s way of writing and narrative voice, though at times it was a little hard to follow.
• 
  Kathy

  Cartledge's project is to present the subject of alterity (otherness) in ancient Greek society as a system that was structured as a set of binary oppositions. Through this, he explores the notions of Greek-barbarian, man-woman, free-slave and god-mortal, explaining that there was rarely any grey area or third alternative in Greek thinking; e.g. everything that was not Greek was automatically barbarian. He uses this characteristic of Greek thinking to explore the historical works of three main writers, Xenophon, Herodotus and Thucydides, explaining to what degree their works display this polarised system of thought.
  
  There are parts of this book that are accessible to a classics novice like me, but there are other parts that are quite difficult. I would like to come back to this book when I have a deeper understanding of the subject so as to benefit from some of the more subtle parts of Cartledge's argument.
• 
  max

  The title tells it all. There was no Center for Barbarian Studies in downtown Athens. The Greeks saw themselves as culturally superior to everyone who surrounded them, especially the Persians, who were not free people but the servile subjects of the Great King. Cartledge is a world class expert on the Greeks and explores this subject at length in this book.
• 
  Richard

  Based primarily on the writings of Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon, the author shows how much of Classical Greek society was a result of an us (Greek citizens, i.e. males) vs. them (women, barbarians, slaves)polarity. Informative, fairly readable though a bit dry. Cartledge makes the point that our connection to the Ancient Greeks is not as strong as we'd like to think. However, when he describes that society's biases against perceived "otherness," I thought it sounded much like the prejudices of today.
• 
  James Dransfield

  Interesting overview of the Greeks and their histories. A tad racist at one point and far too wordy, amounts at most points to no more than toilet paper. I could of picked up the total of the substance in half an hour on Wikipedia. Author slips fluidly between English, French, Latin and Ancient Greek which makes for a magnificently dry read. Avoid unless you have insomnia. 3 Stars as the content was there, despite it being so inaccessible.
• 
  May Phoenix

  3,75🌟
  
  It's a very interesting book, especially if you are interested in the notions of identity and otherness, and socially structured discrimination in history/and/or Ancient Greece.
  
  I must admit several moments the author seemed to be rambling, but it probably was my lack of knowledge of the intricacies of Ancient Greek literature.
  
  I would recommend for anyone who is already deeply familiar with Ancient Greek History and culture.
• 
  John

  I discovered the author via Melvyn Bragg's radio programme "In Our Time". He is great to listen to and I enjoyed his "Very Small Introduction to Ancient Greece" so much that I read it twice. However, I fear this book will be my last by Professor Cartledge, alas. Perhaps students of classics may find this a very useful source of information, but for me, a general reader looking for something more than just "pop history", it was too much like work, and, after finishing, I do not feel that I learned anything new. So only two stars i.e. it was alright but I did not enjoy reading it.