Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #880767 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 220 pages

From Library Journal
The works of only a handful of Alexander scholars are intensely anticipated; Hammond is one of them. In his 90th year, he has produced a highly readable account of the ancient world's greatest conqueror. The paucity of references may bother some, but Hammond sends them to his bibliographies in The Cambridge Ancient History 6 (Cambridge Univ., 1994). Hammond does a good job of not losing the reader in a maze of sources; even someone not previously familiar with Arrian and Plutarch will gain new understandings of how and why Alexander acted as he did. There are historians (E. Badian, for one) who would not agree with Hammond's high opinion of Alexander's motives. Nonetheless, the articulate fashion in which Hammond guides the reader through Alexander's life is outstanding. Recommended for academic and large public libraries.?Clay Williams, Ferris State Univ., Big Rapids, Mich.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Modest in size, Hammond's biography of Alexander of Macedon possesses several large virtues. It is thoroughly grounded in the best available sources; it places Alexander in the context of both the values, religious and secular, of his time and the history of Macedon; and it carefully analyzes the less glamorous aspects of his astonishing military campaigns, such as logistics, a branch of war he and his father Philip virtually invented. Because of its brevity, those who already possess some knowledge of classical history will get the most out of it, but the clarity of Hammond's writing may inspire others to learn some of the background they lack. Hammond comes down unequivocally on the side of argument over Alexander that regards him as a rare genius in both war and statecraft. Those who have been waiting for a scholar who shares that verdict with Mary Renault, pronounced in her famous novels about Alexander, will applaud Hammond, even if he cannot express himself quite as elegantly as Renault. Roland Green

From Kirkus Reviews
A solid if unsurprising introduction to history's greatest conqueror by an expert on his life and times. Famed for such works as A History of Greece to 322 b.c. (1959), Hammond (Greek/Bristol Univ.) has distilled a lifetime of Alexander studies into a brief summary for the general reader of what the Macedonian conqueror did and why. To keep it readable, Hammond includes no footnotes; an appendix refers the skeptical reader to the author's more detailed works. Beginning with Alexander's boyhood, the book recounts his amazing military feats in the Balkans, Asia, and Egypt, ending with his premature death of malaria at 32. The prose is dense and many of the facts familiar; even so, the tale's particulars can still inspire gasps of astonishment, as when Alexander successfully leads his army across the lethal desert of Gedrosia. The biographer openly admires his subject, lauding him not only as history's greatest general but as a charismatic and enlightened leader who aimed to foster prosperity and peace. This is never completely believable: Was Alexander really that perfect? Did contempt for other peoples and greed for their wealth play no role in the foundation of his empire? So satisfied is Hammond with Alexander's own conviction of having the gods' favor that he uncritically records stories of fulfilled omens that will be suspicious to anyone who doesn't believe in Zeus. Hammond states at the outset his disagreement with scholars who ``pick and choose'' among primary sources to support their ``disbelief in great men,'' but he seems all too ready to go to the opposite extreme, denying or rationalizing stories that present Alexander in an unflattering light. The book succeeds as a summary of facts but not as a convincing portrait; it sounds at times more like a boys' adventure yarn than a true intellectual adventure. (illustrations, not seen) (Book-of-the-Month Club/History Book Club selection) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.