[.ca] Greeks (ISBN 020230910X)

The:
Here is history as pure pleasure -- formidable in its learning, yet delivered in a style that is plain and direct, yet enlivened with color and wit. After you have read a few pages, you will have no doubts as to why this relatively slim volume is an evergreen among studies of classical Greece. Kitto, who taught at the University of Glasgow and the University of Bristol in England, set for himself an ambitious aim: to probe the very soul of the Greeks, from the beginning of their literature and history in Homer and Hesiod, through the sublime artistic creations of the 5th century to the decline of the polis (inadequately translated, Kitto says, as "city-state") following the disastrous Peloponnesian war. He avoids two extremes that would have hobbled such an attempt. Kitto neither gets bogged down in historical minutiae (as even the great Will Durant occasionally did in his masterly The Life of Greece), nor does he turn the work into a series of free-floating thought balloons of philosophy and theory. His observations about the spirit of these people who have left an indelible print on western civilization are invariably penetrating, the more so because he is careful, good scholar that he is, to illustrate them with specifics from Greek history and arts. I'll end my review here because your time would be better spent reading the book itself.

The soul of a civilization:
Here is history as pure pleasure -- formidable in its learning, yet delivered in a style that is plain and direct, yet enlivened with color and wit. After you have read a few pages, you will have no doubts as to why this relatively slim volume is an evergreen among studies of classical Greece. Kitto, who taught at the University of Glasgow and the University of Bristol in England, set for himself an ambitious aim: to probe the very soul of the Greeks, from the beginning of their literature and history in Homer and Hesiod, through the sublime artistic creations of the 5th century to the decline of the polis (inadequately translated, Kitto says, as "city-state") following the disastrous Peloponnesian war. He avoids two extremes that would have hobbled such an attempt. Kitto neither gets bogged down in historical minutiae (as even the great Will Durant occasionally did in his masterly The Life of Greece), nor does he turn the work into a series of free-floating thought balloons of philosophy and theory. His observations about the spirit of these people who have left an indelible print on western civilization are invariably penetrating, the more so because he is careful, good scholar that he is, to illustrate them with specifics from Greek history and arts. I'll end my review here because your time would be better spent reading the book itself.

The Greeks, these forgotten guys:
Who were the Greeks? Why there was such a noise about them for about 1900 years? Where did the western civilisation emerge from? All these questions are to be answered through the pages of this book.You don't have to be a classicist,a mere interest into history is enough. A really good introduction to understand modern Greece and its politics, as well. Firstly read this one and then 'Who killed Homer' by Victor Davis Hanson and John Heath and you will get a good grasp, not of the actual history of ancient Greece, but of its mentality and the reasons for its influence over the history of mankind.

Interesting introduction to Ancient Greece, and Greeks :):
The author of "The Greeks", a well-known professor who devoted a great part of his life to the study of Ancient Greece, wrote this book with an aim: help others to understand better the subject that he taught. In my opinion, H. D. F. Kitto fulfilled his self-imposed task marvelously. Kitto doesn't pretend to write an exhaustive history of Ancient Greece, but rather an introductory book that touches upon many subjects without delving too much into any of them. As a result, after reading this book you will end up with a general idea of the culture, art, literature and historical facts regarding Ancient Greece, but you won't be able to say you know all about it. On the other hand, you will know much more about the Greeks, and the values that shaped them and motivated their actions. That is probably more than enough to recommend this book :) I want to point out that even though the author doesn't oversimplify the subject at hand to the point of distorting it, he highlights so much certain central ideas that even those who read the book without paying it due attention will understand them. For instance, Kitto emphasizes the great divide that existed for the Greeks between themselves and the others, the barbarians. According to the Greeks, that divide was undeniable because only they had mastered the way of being truly "free". That certitude, and their consequent feeling of exceptionalism, marked all their actions. Kitto says, in the introduction, that he strove to allow the Greeks to speak for themselves, and the reader gets exactly that impression from time to time. I don't know much about Ancient Greece, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I guess that is a good indication that even those who just want to dabble in the subject are likely to enjoy it... I believe that "The Greeks" is a very well-written book, something that combined with the fact that it isn't overly long makes it the kind of reading material that almost everybody might be interested in. All in all, I highly recommend this book to you :) Belen Alcat

A critical and well-weighted analysis of the Greeks:
Kitto's work was invaluable not in that it recounted the accomplishments and history of this ancient civilization, but rather that it gave the audience an actually glimpse into the mind-set of these ancient people. We get to know at bit about their character, their sense of idealism and intellectualism which were all paramount in creating a society that gave rise to the likes of Socrates and many others. Kitto shows us how the Greeks saw themselves as dignified people who valued their sense of freedom above all else. It was this sense of freedom, self-reliance and honour which the Greeks held so close to their psyche as recounted in the epics of Homer, and it was these characteristics which they thought differentiated them from their non-Greek neighbors. Kitto also tried to explain how these values became slowly eroded during the fourth century by a new sense of individualism and cosmopolitanism that had been spurred on by numerous factors including the loss of "freedom" wrought by the new imperial age of Alexander the Great and later the Roman Empire. Kitto is a philhellene to be sure, as one can perceive from his enthusiasm and admiration for these long gone people. However, he does not blindly go about praising their accomplishments by any means. Kitto does not hesitate to take up the more distasteful elements of antiquity such as slavery. By no means is he an apologist nor does he make feeble attempts to justify any improprieties, yet at the same time he sees fit to qualify excessively disparaging views put forward by other authors on the status of women and slaves for example. Ultimately one gets the sense that he makes a critical analysis of the subject at hand and presents well-weighted arguments.