Book Review: The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton

The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton

Classical scholar Edith Hamilton writes this panegyric to Ancient Greece, the land of city-states that was able to come together under the leadership of Athens and conquer the invading Persians. She describes the Greek culture in detail, looking at historians like Herodotus and Thcuydides, playwrights like Aeschylus and Sophocles, and philosophers like Socrates and Plato. She compares them both to what came before and what came after, showing the greatness of Greek thinking and understanding. She presents a lot of arguments showing their love of human perfection (seen in their art, especially sculpture) and human knowing (which moved on from superstitious assumptions about reality to insights on the true nature of things). Their love of freedom gave them the strength to overcome massive odds, both in war and in the cultural development. She esteems them quite highly over the Eastern cultures of their time and the modern cultures of our time.

Unfortunately, the author writes in such glowing terms that it is very hard to go along with her thesis. Certainly Ancient Greece provided a turning point in Western culture and has had an on-going impact. The authors mentioned above are well worth studying, but surely there have been others who have equaled or surpassed them in the two thousand five hundred years since their time.

I enjoyed reading the book, Hamilton writes well and knows a lot. But I am not quite convinced by it.

Mildly recommended--this is a great overview of the Greek contribution to Western Civilization, if it is a bit overblown.