Persian Fire

Anders Finn J 03/09/2013

Krigene mellem Persien og de græske bystater beskrives ofte som en del af den klassiske græske historie, hvor Perserriget kun spiller en birolle. Holland bog forsøger at beskrive krigene ud fra Perserrigets perspektiv. Han skriver meget spændende (som han plejer), men det er ikke så meget nyt man får at vide. Sandsynligvis fordi kildematerialet primært er græsk (og derved kendt i forvejen). Men alt i alt er man godt underholdt og får et nyt perspektiv på nogle kendte begivenheder.

Anonym 10/09/2008

Fra Amazon: From Publishers Weekly After chronicling the fall of the Roman Republic in Rubicon, historian Holland turns his attention further back in time to 480 B.C., when the Greeks defended their city-states against the invading Persian empire, led by Xerxes. Classicists will recall such battles as Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis, which raises the question: why do we need another account of this war, when we already have Herodotus? But just as Victor David Hanson and Donald Kagan have reframed our understanding of the Peloponnesian War by finding contemporary parallels, Holland recasts the Greek-Persian conflict as the first clash in a long-standing tension between East and West, echoing now in Osama bin Laden's pretensions to a Muslim caliphate. Holland doesn't impose a modern sensibility on the ancient civilizations he describes, and he delves into the background histories of both sides with equally fascinating detail. Though matters of Greek history like the brutal social structure of the Spartans are well known, the story of the Persian empire—like the usurper Darius's claim that every royal personage he assassinated was actually an imposter—should be fresh and surprising to many readers, while Holland's graceful, modern voice will captivate those intimidated by Herodotus. (May 2) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.