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Alexander the Great | 
| Author: Paul Cartledge
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 325661
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 1400079195
Dewey Decimal Number: 938.07092
EAN: 9781400079193
ASIN: 1400079195
Publication Date: November 1, 2005
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Condition: Decent reading copy in acceptable condition. Mild water damage stains and wrinkling. Highlighting and writing throughout text. Orders Shipped in One Business Day! Great Customer Service. Your Satisfaction is Guaranteed!
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Product Description
Paul Cartledge, one of the world’s foremost scholars of ancient Greece, illuminates the brief but iconic life of Alexander (356-323 BC), king of Macedon, conqueror of the Persian Empire, and founder of a new world order.
Alexander's legacy has had a major impact on military tacticians, scholars, statesmen, adventurers, authors, and filmmakers. Cartledge brilliantly evokes Alexander's remarkable political and military accomplishments, cutting through the myths to show why he was such a great leader. He explores our endless fascination with Alexander and gives us insight into his charismatic leadership, his capacity for brutality, and his sophisticated grasp of international politics. Alexander the Great is an engaging portrait of a fascinating man, and a welcome balance to the myths, legends, and often skewed history that have obscured the real Alexander.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...
 Alexander June 3, 2007
12 out of 16 found this review helpful
Alexander. After 2,328 years who else can be identified by a single name, without a title, and still be almost universally known? Often beloved, or at least highly respected, in the west, almost universally despised in much of the east, very few with knowledge of Alexander have no feelings one way or the other.
Over the years I have read almost every book reasonably available about this remarkable man. Some of these books are highly informative but ponderous in the extreme. Some treat Alexander as the untarnished hero, the darling of the west, while others treat him as a villain and a drunk, unworthy of praise.
It is up to each person to decide who Alexander was or is, but Mr. Cartledge has produced a well-written book, informative, without bias or agenda. It has excellent detail without dragging the reader into the minutea which is of interest only to the professional historian. His discussion covers the noble and the base about this man, who is, unarguably, one of the most important persons in the history of the western and middle-eastern worlds.
Bob
A Good Balanced Book About Alexander April 3, 2007
57 out of 57 found this review helpful
This book isn't the definitive biography about Alexander and isn't a fast-reading primer either. It is at once concise and scholarly. Some sections are exhilirating and fun to read and some sections bog down and have you skipping around looking for something more fun to read. As some other reviewers have pointed out, the book jumps around based on themes (Alexander as general, Alexander as statesman, Alexander's early history, Alexander's legacy, the romance of Alexander, etc.), so it doesn't lead you through his life in a chronological order. For that type of reading, I'd recommend Robin Lane Fox's bio which reads like an epic novel and Peter Green's superb seminal bio.
If you already have a good overall grasp of Alexander's history and are looking for another perspective from a renowned scholar in this field, I highly recommend it as another addition to a well-rounded collection of works regarding this great military commander, world conqueror, and profoundly important figure in human history. Cartledge has a very thorough yet concise approach, but his very scholarly background sometimes gets a tad overbearing in some sections that read like academia. But then, some sections read like a modern article and are easy to absorb and relate to from our modern perspectives.
The fascinating thing about Alexander is the timelessness of his achievements and the means he used to attain them. Certainly, like any other human being (especially a young and supremely confident one), he was deeply flawed in many respects, but in the end, there's a good reason why he's called Alexander THE GREAT. You can't help but learn a lot from someone who was as wildly successful as he was in his incredibly ambitious endeavors. The principles of his strategies, tactics, statesmanship, governance, and leadership are all things that we can apply in our daily modern lives. His magnanimity in victory, his chivalry towards the Persian royals, his generosity towards his friends and loyal subjects, his enlightened treatment of women (including the outlawing of rape), his ability to admit his mistakes in public, his goal of fusing different cultures (essentially the first serious attempt in history to marry the cultures of the West and East), and his love for the arts and sciences are other very admirable qualities. It's obvious that he had an insatiable curiosity about any subject matter and a thirst for knowledge and learning.
We can also learn from his faults and mistakes - his delusions of self grandeur, megalomania, obsessiveness, paranoia, alcoholism, stubbornness, recklessness, ruthlessness, etc. Alexander was a man of extreme contradictions and the book examines these contradictions to a good degree. Another fascinating aspect of Alexander is the mythical aura that has followed his name since his death and this aspect is addressed in great detail in this book as well. Was he a noble libertarian who wanted to free mankind from slavery and unite mankind in brotherhood or was he simply a blood-thirsty warlord who massacred the innocents at will and only sought personal glory? Cartledge takes the middle ground and suggests that he was probably a little (or lots) of all of the above.
There are many great books about Alexander and I do think this one belongs in the collection of all the Alexander buffs for those who want to skip around and get Cartledge's credible insights, but the biographies of Robin Lane Fox, Peter Green, Nicholas Hammond, and J.F.C. Fuller are recommended for those who want a more complete overview laid out in a chronological order. Still, this is a very good and welcome work from a noted historian of ancient Greece and is an enjoyable read for the most part. It's one of those books you like to come back to over and over again just to read a certain chapter or sections when you have limited time to read.
Read This First October 26, 2006
21 out of 27 found this review helpful
Being a history addict and a Soldier has led me to read everything printed in english on Alexander the Great (nuministic and logistical books included). Some biographers depict him as a shining idealized soldier-king, while others as a drunken despot on a self delusional path to deification. Cartledge balances the historical record with fresh interpretations of events and a common sense test of putting the reader in Alexander's shoes at the moment of each event. This leads to a connection with the man and an understanding of his actions that lacks in most biographies of Alexander. The answer, it seems, is that Alexander was a man like any other before and since; brilliant and flawed, just like the rest of us. If you are going to read your first book on Alexander, or only one book ever, this is the one to pick up.
Good Biography October 3, 2006
27 out of 30 found this review helpful
I enjoyed reading "Alexander the Great" by Paul Cartledge, Greek History Professor at Cambridge University. Alexander the Great is among (if not) the greatest soldier in recorded history He achieved stunning military and political success in his short life. The book is structured thematically, which I found interesting and has good illustrations of battle lines, maps, glossary, bibliography, among other things.
The author methodically explores the various fascinating aspects of the brilliant and visionary Alexander the great including his leadership style, his divinity, his conquests and how he related to the various countries that he conquered.
After reading this book, I recommend that you also read "Alexander the Great's Art of Strategy". It is a thoughtful and perceptive book that is a joy to read. Another excellent biography of Alexander the great is "The Nature of Alexander" by Mary Renault.
I recommend "Alexander the Great" to anybody that needs to understand the life and times of Alexander the Great as well as his numerous achievements.
What the movie doesn't tell you... September 6, 2006
1 out of 23 found this review helpful
An overview of the military conquests of Alexander the Great whose campaigns spread the influence of Greek culture into modern civilization. This is more of the story that wasn't shown in the 2004 movie. Once you learn more of the real Alexander you will truly wonder why Colin Farrell was cast as him.
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