A History of the Roman People,   ISBN:9780130384805

Customer Rating: 

This is the best book on Roman history that is out there.

JPD, HIS/SS B.S. Ed.

Customer Rating: 

This could not have been an easy book to write. It is the "gold standard" college textbook on Roman History. As a textbook, one assumes that it is used in conjunction with the instruction of a competent academic teaching a course on Roman History. Therein lies the rub. It would help to have some background in the History of Antiquity at a bare minimum to read this book. And yet at least as regards the Empire in the West, the book misses next to nothing. It took Theodor Mommsen 1700 odd pages in his masterwork "Roman History" to get to the end of the Republic. Factually the book is spot on 99.9% of the time. Interpretively there is room for some quibbles in certain areas by the extremely knowledgeable in the field. For example, both Stegemann and Malina would see some things differently.

The writing style is straigtforward and academic. The amount of information packed in this book is amazing considering its size. If this leads to less than vibrant prose, so be it. There really is no replacement for this book. Judicious and circumscribed as the content may seem absolutely nothing is overlooked regarding Roman in the West at least up to 500 CE. Beyond that the consideration of the Eastern Roman Empire seems attenuated by a Euro-Centered bias. The East is fairly well covered if it is interacting with the West, and far less well covered on its own. Once there is no more Roman Empire in the West, Byzantine History is even more compressed. However, there are still some very interesting observations and information regarding the East inspite of this economy of words. My simple solution is to read Warren Treadgold's history of Byzantium as soon as you finish this book. That will provide you with another 800 odd pages of reading.

Rome was around for a long time. It ruled a good portion of the known world for at least a thousand years. There is no good "Reader's Digest" version of its history available. One should consider this mandatory reading if one wishes to pursue an understanding of the topic. But, if you wish to understand everything you read in this book come prepared. It is not unreasonable to think that a basic grasp of Roman History would entail reading ten to fifteen thousand pages of material, and that would leave no particular room for specialized interests. Either you make the commitment or you do not. That is your choice.

Customer Rating: 

This is a poorly written, textbook style book. It is an extremely boring read.

The book focuses on the sources of information used by historians as much as the history itself. The large amount of text dedicated to the early (pre-historic) history was not made meaningful in the context of how Rome developed.

If you want an overview of how The Roman Empire developed I would suggest you search elsewhere.

Customer Rating: 

I have assigned this book to my students who uniformly praise its clarity. It is as easy to read as a college history book can be without being weak and "lite." I cannot imagine how they condensed this so skillfully. I think it would be fine for an honors high school class as well. One of its many virtues is the extremely clear boldface section and paragraph headings which make it easy for me to assign my students to read selectively if necessary. There is plenty of "cultural" (non-military, non-political) material as well as a few well-chosen pictures. This book is practical and efficient without being dumbed down or watered down.In addition, unlike certain books often assigned in Roman civilization courses, there is no visible political bias here, right or left. The emphasis is on comprehensibility of main events, themes, etc. I would recommend it not only for Roman history courses but also for Roman civilization courses since students really do want a chronological framework and some detail on politics, in my experience at least.

Customer Rating: 

I purchased the third edition to avoid one world indoctrination, political correctness, and revisionism. I have not read the fourth edition and cannot speak about it.

If anyone is concerned about the same, the third edition is a "bring your own personal beliefs," and is wonderful. I can't recommend it enough.

A small handful of books are being reproduced from antiquity by concerned people who do not want themselves or their children taught from the present day books. I would nominate the third edition as one of those excellent and "safe" books. This is an academic classic.

This book is worthy of being pulled from antiquity. It is such fine work and so enjoyable to read. I had bought it for personal pleasure and love it. I intend to keep this book as one of my favorite "read and rereads."

A person is simply going to be highly entertained with this book. The details! The information! The pictures! It's just packed!