Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Classics: All You Need to Know from Zeus’s Throne to the Fall of Rome

By Caroline Taggart

From the back of the book:

“It’s no myth: The legacy of the ancient Greeks and Romans touches each of us in some way every day. In fact, the great thinkers from this period laid the foundation for much of our language, art, architecture, and science. Unfortunately, learning about such things can often be oh, so boring … With The Classics, author Caroline Taggart presents a lively refresher course of the most important ‘stuff’ you need to know.”

I’ve read several books in this series and they are simply delightful. I found this one particularly interesting because of the descriptions of the Greek and Roman gods.

When I was in ninth grade, we studied Greek mythology. However, I missed most of that class due to an illness that kept me out of school for almost a month. So, this was a great way to catch up on this topic after all these years.

Yet, this little book goes beyond that. The author discusses the classical languages, including the Greek alphabet and how it compares to the English letters. She also gives a variety of examples of modern-day words and their connection to the old languages.

To top it off, there are chapters on Greed and Roman history, math and science, plus philosophy and the liberal arts.

The book is well-written and captures your attention. If you want to learn more about these topics, this is definitely the book for you.


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