- Hardcover: 464 pages
- Publisher: Random House (Nov 2 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1400062616
- ISBN-13: 978-1400062614
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16 x 3.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 771 g
-
Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#834,702 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #45 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( A ) > Alexander the Great
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
Review
Advance praise for Alexander
“This thorough and deeply researched book is very welcome. Guy Rogers gives us, too, the astonishing and highly important relevance, to our whole history, including recent times, of this almost incredible career. Read it and think!”
–ROBERT CONQUEST
“Rogers’s Alexander is a learned and judicious essay about a man who became a myth in his lifetime and remains partly mythical today in spite of the best efforts of generations of scholars to interpret and reinterpret surviving ancient texts about him. Certainty on many points will never be possible; but reading what Rogers has to say about how Alexander changed the world around him and how his deeds still echo among us is a delightful exercise. Alexander modeled himself on Homer’s heroes and actually joined their company, as no one else ever managed to do.”
–WILLIAM H. MCNEILL, professor emeritus in history, University of Chicago, and author of The Rise of the West
“Guy Rogers has written a lively account of the amazing career of Alexander the Great. He greatly admires the Macedonian conqueror and his achievements, but his judgments are more balanced and marked by common sense than many modern treatments.”
–DONALD KAGAN, Sterling Professor of History and Classics, Yale University, author of The Peloponnesian War and other books.
“This thorough and deeply researched book is very welcome. Guy Rogers gives us, too, the astonishing and highly important relevance, to our whole history, including recent times, of this almost incredible career. Read it and think!”
–ROBERT CONQUEST
“Rogers’s Alexander is a learned and judicious essay about a man who became a myth in his lifetime and remains partly mythical today in spite of the best efforts of generations of scholars to interpret and reinterpret surviving ancient texts about him. Certainty on many points will never be possible; but reading what Rogers has to say about how Alexander changed the world around him and how his deeds still echo among us is a delightful exercise. Alexander modeled himself on Homer’s heroes and actually joined their company, as no one else ever managed to do.”
–WILLIAM H. MCNEILL, professor emeritus in history, University of Chicago, and author of The Rise of the West
“Guy Rogers has written a lively account of the amazing career of Alexander the Great. He greatly admires the Macedonian conqueror and his achievements, but his judgments are more balanced and marked by common sense than many modern treatments.”
–DONALD KAGAN, Sterling Professor of History and Classics, Yale University, author of The Peloponnesian War and other books.
Book Description
For nearly two and a half millennia, Alexander the Great has loomed over history as a legend–and an enigma. Wounded repeatedly but always triumphant in battle, he conquered most of the known world, only to die mysteriously at the age of thirty-two. In his day he was revered as a god; in our day he has been reviled as a mass murderer, a tyrant as brutal as Stalin or Hitler.
Who was the man behind the mask of power? Why did Alexander embark on an unprecedented program of global domination? What accounted for his astonishing success on the battlefield? In this luminous new biography, the esteemed classical scholar and historian Guy MacLean Rogers sifts through thousands of years of history and myth to uncover the truth about this complex, ambiguous genius.
Ascending to the throne of Macedonia after the assassination of his father, King Philip II, Alexander discovered while barely out of his teens that he had an extraordinary talent and a boundless appetite for military conquest. A virtuoso of violence, he was gifted with an uncanny ability to visualize how a battle would unfold, coupled with devastating decisiveness in the field. Granicus, Issos, Gaugamela, Hydaspes–as the victories mounted, Alexander’s passion for conquest expanded from cities to countries to continents. When Persia, the greatest empire of his day, fell before him, he marched at once on India, intending to add it to his holdings.
As Rogers shows, Alexander’s military prowess only heightened his exuberant sexuality. Though his taste for multiple partners, both male and female, was tolerated, Alexander’s relatively enlightened treatment of women was nothing short of revolutionary. He outlawed rape, he placed intelligent women in positions of authority, and he chose his wives from among the peoples he conquered. Indeed, as Rogers argues, Alexander’s fascination with Persian culture, customs, and sexual practices may have led to his downfall, perhaps even to his death.
Alexander emerges as a charismatic and surprisingly modern figure–neither a messiah nor a genocidal butcher but one of the most imaginative and daring military tacticians of all time. Balanced and authoritative, this brilliant portrait brings Alexander to life as a man, without diminishing the power of the legend.
Who was the man behind the mask of power? Why did Alexander embark on an unprecedented program of global domination? What accounted for his astonishing success on the battlefield? In this luminous new biography, the esteemed classical scholar and historian Guy MacLean Rogers sifts through thousands of years of history and myth to uncover the truth about this complex, ambiguous genius.
Ascending to the throne of Macedonia after the assassination of his father, King Philip II, Alexander discovered while barely out of his teens that he had an extraordinary talent and a boundless appetite for military conquest. A virtuoso of violence, he was gifted with an uncanny ability to visualize how a battle would unfold, coupled with devastating decisiveness in the field. Granicus, Issos, Gaugamela, Hydaspes–as the victories mounted, Alexander’s passion for conquest expanded from cities to countries to continents. When Persia, the greatest empire of his day, fell before him, he marched at once on India, intending to add it to his holdings.
As Rogers shows, Alexander’s military prowess only heightened his exuberant sexuality. Though his taste for multiple partners, both male and female, was tolerated, Alexander’s relatively enlightened treatment of women was nothing short of revolutionary. He outlawed rape, he placed intelligent women in positions of authority, and he chose his wives from among the peoples he conquered. Indeed, as Rogers argues, Alexander’s fascination with Persian culture, customs, and sexual practices may have led to his downfall, perhaps even to his death.
Alexander emerges as a charismatic and surprisingly modern figure–neither a messiah nor a genocidal butcher but one of the most imaginative and daring military tacticians of all time. Balanced and authoritative, this brilliant portrait brings Alexander to life as a man, without diminishing the power of the legend.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.ca
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.9 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)
49 of 49 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Better Than The Others, Dec 6 2004
By Gianmarco Manzione - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Alexander: The Ambiguity of Greatness (Hardcover)
Erudite, engaging and immensely readable, Guy Maclean Rogers's new biography of Alexander may not contribute much new material to an ancient fascination, but the vividness of the writing combined with the author's passion for his subject makes for a gripping read. Though the book tends to race through Alexander's life at the expense of further detail, it is still a more patient account than other recent biographies rushed to stores in time for the movie. From his mounting of Philip II's incorrigible horse as a boy to his legendary pursuit of Darius throughout Persia and subsequent endeavor to avenge his murder (only because Alexander would have liked the honor of killing Darius himself), every quirk and rumor of Alexander's personality is explored here. It is hard to say anything necessarily "new" when no new sources of information exist beyond those of contemporary historians who continue to interpret the documents of the same handful of ancient writers: Curtius, Justin, Diodorus, Plutarch and others. When a chairman of the Department of History at Wesleyan University with a Ph.D. from Princeton tosses yet another biography into the fray, it is usually an attempt to dispute the conclusions of other biographers. Rogers does plenty of that here. Downplaying accounts of Alexander's homosexuality while attempting to understand his bloody rampages across the known world within the context of his times, Rogers objects to notions of Alexander as the Hitler or Stalin of the ancient world, often pointing to the equally brutal tactics of the king's contemporaries. Admittedly, Rogers tends to apologize for Alexander's brutality where he really ought to leave it up to the reader to decide. An ability to let the facts speak for themselves is what makes Peter Green's Alexander of Macedon the preeminent contemporary study of Alexander. But if Rogers's book lacks the authority of a less-enamored chronicle, it makes up for this flaw with its informed eloquence. Rogers has given us a book flooding over with the warm and knowledgeable passion of a scholar who loves his job as much as he loves his subject. If that is a "flaw," I sure wouldn't mind being accused of it myself.[...]
41 of 41 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A balanced, non-hollywood treatment of Alexander, Jun 22 2005
By Michael Bond - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Alexander: The Ambiguity of Greatness (Hardcover)
Alexander of Macedonia lived and died over two thousand years ago. He only lived 32 years and yet, continues to be the subject of book and film. Many questions surround him. Was he truly 'great' or was he a butcher? How did he die? Was he and his mother involved in the death of his father, Phillip?This is a well-researched book with many pages of references and notes. Rogers presents the history of Alexander based on the major sources "contemporary" to the subject and includes information from more removed (in time) sources.
If you are interested in the details of the battles, you will find this book very interesting. For most battles, it includes a diagram of the battlefield. Some readers may be put off by the long detailed discussions of the battles.
There is, of course, not much new information that can be added to the ancient sources, but we do know a lot of about the customs and social standards of that day in Greece, Persia and India. Rogers addresses some of the social customs of the times, of Alexanders transition to or incorporation of Persian customs, but there could have been a lot more. I wish there had been.
Rather than 'settle' some of the arguments or make judgements about Alexander and the things he did, Rogers tries to put his actions into perspective. He encourages the reader to judge the man in his own environment and times.
39 of 39 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful account of the life of a living god, Sep 7 2005
By G.Reed - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Alexander: The Ambiguity of Greatness (Hardcover)
Much of Alexander's life is shrouded in myth, and legend. A legend himself, Alexander conquered most of the known world, before his untimely and mysterious death in Babylon.The young conquerer was renowned for his military tactics and power, yet cursed today as a mass murderer, a tyrant. Is the god-like enigma a genocidal butcher, or a hero?
In this down to earth account Guy MacLean Rogers accurately paints a picture of Alexander's life and times, his victories and...well, victories, the young king never lost a battle. The author clearly displays respect for the conquerer, but in a way not making his biography too bias. Overall, this scholarly and fascinating work, drawing not only on modern evidence, but the accounts of the ancient world, is amazing and interesting in its words, and awing in its message. After more than 2000 years, Alexander comes back to life.
However, I was a little dissapointed with the final chapters summarizing his life and trying to analyze the king himself, his personality and role in history. The author seemed a little too wowed by the conquerer, and basically stated that he was not a tyrant, that he was a just ruler for his time, without giving thought towards the other side of the argument. I found this assessment less useful than just the history of his life.
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical
- Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Leaders & Notable People > Military
- Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( A ) > Alexander the Great
- Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Professionals & Academics > Military & Spies
- Books > History > Ancient > Greece
- Books > History > Europe > Greece > Ancient
- Books > History > Military > Biographies
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
