Book review: The Greeks

What is this book:

Originally written in 1951, H.D.F. Kitto writes a general history of the Greeks of the classical age covering classical Greek daily life, art, politics, philosophy, war, and culture. The author touches on the context out of which the classical age arose, and briefly touches upon its end with the rise of the Macedonians, but really does his best to focus on just the classical period. Like many histories of ancient Greece, there is a heavy focus on Athens and Athenian culture.

Why I’m reading it:

I found it on my father’s bookshelf, and I love reading about classical history. Sorry to disappoint. Should I event have included this section if there’s no interesting story? Yes.

The review:

Many a time an author has become enamoured with his subject. He ceases to review and begins to glorify his target. So it is with Kitto adulating his Greeks. The book opens with the lines

The reader is asked, for a moment, to accept this as a reasonable statement of fact, that in a part of the world that had for centuries been civilized, and quite highly civilized, there gradually emerged a people, not very numerous, not very powerful, not very well organized, who had a totally new conception of what human life was for, and showed for the first time what the human mind was for.

As you go along further through the book, you may find yourself beginning to suspect that Kitto believes that the Greeks of the Classical Age may have been not just the first, but the only humans to show what human life is for. Many a broad assertion is made about the great aesthetic quality of Greek art, of their superiority to their contemporary neighbours, their historical predecessors and mid-20^th century Britain, without nearly so much evidence or explanation to explain why the Greeks were so superior. This is especially noticeable when he discusses the polis.

Kitto spends an entire chapter exploring what the polis meant to the Classical Greek man, and extols it both in that chapter and throughout the book as being the ideal model for encouraging human well-being and flourishing. He cites no less an authority than Aristotle, claiming that the commonly translated quotation “Man is a political animal” is really more accurately translated as “Man is an animal whose nature is to live in a city state” [n.b. – the English work “politics” is derived from the Ancient Greek work “πόλις” or “polis”, which is the form of city-state that existed in Classical Greece]. Kitto claims that the polis was a system designed to fully support man in his material, spiritual, political, and athletic needs. While we see in some sense how these are fulfilled in the polis, Kitto never really bothers to actually describe why the polis is so superior to other forms of political organisation in respect to these attributes, or why these should be the axes upon which to base our evaluation of the success of a political system. One does suspect, however, that Kitto severely regrets that he couldn’t live in a polis himself.

Despite his obvious philhellenism, Kitto’s knowledge of Ancient Greece is excellent. His book does an excellent job, perhaps better than any other I have seen, of actually giving a sense for how the ancient Greeks might have thought, and how they lived their life. He manages to string together the various aspects of Ancient Greece which he is examining – art, politics, war, and daily life – in such a way that each portrait reinforces the others, as each of these subjects relates to each other much in the way that they relate in real life, though each topic has its own chapter.

It is here that Kitto’s enthusiasm for Ancient Greece serves him best perhaps, for his writing is rather lively, and his obvious enthusiasm for the subject helps bring the reader along the book. There is nothing quite thrilling exposed in this book, but it is never dull, and not too long, moving along at a consistent pace, always giving enough detail to leave the reader satisfied, while rarely wandering off on a tangent (with one notable exception), or leaving the reader confused or inundated with information. As I noted above that the various sections of the book serve to support each other in creating the picture of Ancient Greece which Kitto paints, furthermore most every point and fact has been well placed in its proper context to allow it to be easily digested by the reader.

Further, Kitto’s sometimes overzealous aping of Ancient Greece does sometimes serve the reader – or at least it served this reader. Kitto pushes back on two common points of criticism of ancient Greek society – slavery and the treatment of women. That’s not to say that Kitto pushes these under the rug or denies that these are valid criticisms. Rather he provides some more context on to what life was likely like for Greek slaves and women – certainly not good, but simply different than what I’d previously heard about the Ancient Greek world. Perhaps a different reader might find that again here Kitto is being too soft on the Greeks or downplaying these evils, but these sections did find their audience in me, providing more colour and nuance to my notions of this part of Greek society.

Finally, it must be said that this book was written by an English professor in 1951 and it shows. Kitto’s archaeology will be out of date for the modern reader – for instance he states that the Bronze Age Minoans left us no writing which we can decipher, yet today one of their scripts, Linear B, has in fact been deciphered, and much more light has been shed on other civilisations surrounding the Greeks. Kitto also has a habit of making some very contemporary English references – comparing some Ancient Greek city to Birmingham or London, or some such aspect of Greek life to British life in the 1950s. These comparisons may feel a little useless to the modern, or non-British reader. Kitto also has a habit of vaguely and dismissively referring to orientals/orientalism/oriental despotism, and generally giving the reader a sense that he considers anything East of the Hellespont to be somehow inferior – perhaps to be expected for a man of his age but definitely noticeable at certain points. Conversely, I was surprised by how frankly he discusses homosexuality in ancient Greece – seemingly without a hint of opprobrium or disapproval so there’s that.

Conclusion:

I’d give this book a moderate recommendation – it’s by no means a must-read, but is definitely a good introduction to Ancient Greece for anyone looking to get a feel of the lay of the land and the time. I give it a 3 stars out of no real maximum number of stars.