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Alexander the Great: The Hunt for a New Past Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Paul Cartledge (Author), John Lee (Narrator), Blackstone Audio, Inc. (Publisher)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 148 ratings
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Paul Cartledge, one of the world's foremost scholars of ancient Greece, illuminates the brief but iconic life of Alexander (356-323 B.C.), king of Macedon, conqueror of the Persian Empire, and founder of a new world order. Alexander's legacy has had a major impact on military tacticians, scholars, statesmen, adventurers, authors, and filmmakers.

Cartledge brilliantly evokes Alexander's remarkable political and military accomplishments, cutting through the myths to show why he was such a great leader. He explores our endless fascination with Alexander and gives us insight into his charismatic leadership, his capacity for brutality, and his sophisticated grasp of international politics.

Alexander the Great is an engaging portrait of a fascinating man and a welcome balance to the myths, legends, and skewed history that have obscured the real Alexander.

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  1. Listening Length
    9 hours and 28 minutes
  2. Author
    Paul Cartledge
  3. Narrator
    John Lee
  4. Audible release date
    August 12, 2009
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Blackstone Audio, Inc.
  7. ASIN
    B002LCSVDS
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 9 hours and 28 minutes
Author Paul Cartledge
Narrator John Lee
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date August 12, 2009
Publisher Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B002LCSVDS
Best Sellers Rank #125,445 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#73 in Ancient & Classical Greek History
#78 in Greek History
#81 in Historical Greece Biographies

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4.3 out of 5 stars
148 global ratings

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Poorly structured, repetitive, highly opinionated
2 out of 5 stars
Poorly structured, repetitive, highly opinionated
The book is laid out in a way where the author repeats himself over and over. Instead of telling the story of Alexander in a cohesive narrative form (which would be a proper way to introduce him to a new reader) parts of his life are told out of order, and you end up reading about different parts of Alexander's life. The principal issue is the jumping back and forth. Cartledge will give you a bit of new information, but that new information is packaged in two paragraphs reintroducing said information you already read about in previous chapters. Especially towards the end of the book, you will feel as though you are reading the same thing over and over.The book is very highly opinionated. Cartledge has a whole section in his appendix explaining why the sources on Alexander are contradictory and unreliable. This is true, which is why he also makes a point to say in the book that how you view Alexander it's based upon your own conclusions from the sources we have. This is all perfectly fine, except that Cartledge makes absolute statements about things he couldn't possibly know for certain. I have given two pages from the book as an example.Homosexuality is mentioned throughout the book and is presented as, and I quote, "There was no stigma attached to homeretic relations as such in ancient Greece, and homosexual and heterosexual experiences were not felt to be either emotionally or socially incompatible." (pg. 228). This is pure fantasy on Cartledge's part, as we have numerous quotes from Aristotle, Plato and others, who wrote against homosexuality. And we also know of the many laws that were in place in ancient Greece that forbid and even punished the practice by death. Any sources given to support Cartledge's claim are neglected, and those that go against his claim are ignored.Overrall, I strongly disagree with The Washington Post's review that this is an "most accessible introduction". Quite the contrary, it is highly opinionated, unsubstantiated in many parts, and poorly structured.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Ronnie Aroety
    5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome book, great author
    Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2024
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    Awesome book, great author
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  • Infidel0369
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great transaction!
    Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2024
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    Shipped quickly and exactly as expected.
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  • JPS
    4.0 out of 5 stars Middle of the road
    Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2015
    This is, as other reviewers have already mentioned and discussed, an excellent book. It is also a thoughtful one where the author, with his usual talent, scholarship and accessible writing style, seeks (and very largely succeeds) to come up with an entertaining piece that is targeted at the general reader but may also be useful for specialists. Customers should not that this is NOT yet another biographer of the conqueror or, perhaps to be more accurate, it is not the "usual" and yet another biographer of Alexander. Instead, Paul Cartledge has investigated a number of key themes associated with "Alexander the Great's" life and achievements, and carefully discussed them.

    I have titled this review "middle of the road" because, in most cases, this is the overall impression that the book gave me. The author strives to keep to the middle ground on just about all of the themes that he reviews. This middle ground opposes the traditional and heroicised view of Alexander, which derives from what Cartledge (and others) have presented as the "official sources" derived from Callisthenes and/or written by eyewitnesses (such as Ptolemy) and which are largely reflected by one of the main remaining sources, and the "modern" view of Alexander, which also draws on surviving sources to some extent and owes so much to Badian. This "modern' view, informed by the 20th century experiences of totalitarian regimes, is much less favorable and even, for some authors (Bosworth, in particular) mostly hostile, with Alexander depicted as a kind of "monster" who did little if any good and whose demise triggered some forty years of fighting between his self-appointed Successors.

    As already mentioned, Paul Cartledge's piece is a very valuable contribution to unconvering "the truth behind the myth" although, as the author is honest enough to state, discussions and controversies on Alexander will go on and a number of issues will ultimately remain unresolved because so much of the sources have been lost and only fragments of some of the 20 primary sources remain, often as summaries from much later Roman authors or Greek authors writing in Roman times, or as quotations from the same authors. A complement to this valuable piece is now Anson's contributions on "Themes and issues" which, in some cases, are clearly a response to Cartledge's views.

    Perhaps the main merit of this book is to show that the extreme versions presenting Alexander in either a very favorable or a very negative way are excessive, colored by prejudices and may even, when considering the sources, correspond to specific agendas. One particularly interesting piece is the demonstration showing that while Alexander's campaigns certainly did have an impact on Macedonia's population, this impact was somewhat more limited than Bosworth has made it up to be and the country was not durably deprived of adult "Makedones" males as a result of his far-flung campaigns. Other points of view may be perhaps more disputable. As Anson has shown in his more recent work, it is doubful as to whether Alexander can really be portrayed as the "founder of the Hellenistic world" because it is unlikely that he had such an intention and may not have cared about it, unlike some of his Successors who definitely needed to consolidate their respective regimes.

    While excellent, if only because it shows to what extent our views of Alexander will have to remain somewhat speculative due to the lack of surviving primary sources, the book did however have some a limits, and this is regardless of whether you agree with the author's views. The first limit is a consequence of the author's choice to present the outstanding Macedonian monarch in a thematic way. To get the full benefit of Cartledge's insights and views, you probably need to have already a (good) grasp of the period, and of Alexander's "life and deeds" in particular. To be fair, however, this concern has been somewhat mitigated by the author because he has provided a glossary of terms and a comprehensive list of characters with their main claims to fame. Both of these elements are extremely useful. The second limit was perhaps a bit more surprising. The book contains diagrams of all of Alexander's main battles in Asia and of the siege of Tyre. However, the discussion of these is very limited or even almost non-existent at times.

    Something that was particularly missing was a disccusion showing to what extent Alexander's battle tactics reflected his personality and were frequently or even systematically) brilliant but very high risk gambles. He could have lost - and almost did lose - his life in just about every encounter. Another such gamble, and the only one on which Cartledge really insists, was his decision to dismiss his fleet and to defeat the Persian naval forces by conquering all of the ports that they could use. As Paul Cartledge shows very well, this, and Alexander's decision to go to Egypt, gave time for Darius to rally and rebuild yet another army. A third - and related - issue is that Cartledge mentions several times to what extent Alexander was fortunate, at least up to 330, because even when he got himself in trouble, he managed to extricate himself and/or the ennemy was unable to take full advantage of his difficulties. It is therefore a pit of a pity that the author could not be bothered to analyse Alexander's victories at Granicus, Issos and Gaugamela in more detail, because such an analysis would have shown that all three battles were hard fought and their outcome was certainly not predictable. Interestingly also, and until Darius could be captured, none of these victories would really be decisive, however brilliant they were. This relates to the main reason for Alexander's relentless pursuit of Darius after Gaugamela: it was essential to capture the Persian monarch (preferably) and even kill him if necessary and, more generally, from preventing him from rallying and reforming yet another army from the Perisan empire's heartlands and Eastern borders.

    There are, however, some areas where Cartledge does take sides. One The example is that of Alexander's later years where he joins the existing concensus and accepts that Alexander's character became more despotic and took a turn for the worse, even if he refrains from seing Alexander as a paranoid alcoholic, as another author has. Another example is the depiction of Alexander as always wanting and needing "more" and wanting and needing to be in a class of his own, as a hero and then as a living god. This is also a theme revisited by Anson's work and it is particularly interesting to read both books in parralel and compare the views of both authors. Four strong stars.
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  • Michael P.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Best book on Alexander I have read yet
    Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2015
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    Best book on Alexander I have read yet. But, as advertised, it is only best for those who already know the story and stories of Alexanders life and accomplishments. Cartledge is to be commended for being a very logical critic of the genre and of the man himself.
    8 people found this helpful
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  • L. Galusha
    3.0 out of 5 stars Heavily unsubstantiated, pompous author
    Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2011
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    This author is so full of his own ideas he hardly takes the time to step down from his cloud to provide evidence for some of his key arguments.

    Also, he describes the torsion catapult as a "spring-powered-crossbow," a wholly incorrect statement.

    He also incorrectly confuses the oblique order and advancing in eschelon, constantly throughout the text, which makes it even more confusing.

    He claims that Cavalry actually have a disadvantage over infantry because their spears weighed less, completely neglecting the fact that the Animal's weight would be added to the thrust. He actually states that the only advantages of cavalry were "speed, cohesion, horsemanship, and courage at close quarters." Ironically, he forgets the most important factor, the factor that made cavalry a devastating weapon for over 2000 years, the size and strength of the animal and it's willingness to be ridden. A slightly lighter spear being wielded from horseback being compared to a slightly heavier spear being wielded by a slow, clunky foot-soldier...there is no comparison, the Cavalry will strike with more impetus, delivering a much more powerful blow, not least of all because their spears would be substantially shorter. (ask ANY medieval historian about the advantages of cavalry and you will get the same response...)

    Besides the numerous lapses of thought and small factual errors (the above are just some of the more egregious lapses of judgement, from a military historian's standpoint)Cartledge is excessively difficult to follow because he bounces all over the spectrum of time. This is alright, if you actually have a reason for it, which Cartledge often does not. This is especially apparent when, in the middle of a chapter discussing Alexander's relationship with his soldiers, Cartledge randomly leads the reader into a completely unrelated paragraph about Alexander's alleged homosexuality, the cult of the Gymnasium, and the homosexuality of the Theban band...then, a paragraph later, returns to his original thesis. (the paragraph is amazingly out of place, so much so that several of my acquaintances who have also read this book have, like myself, raised their eyebrows and said "huh?" So, I'm not alone on this point either.)

    Cartledge's book is arranged as a series of essays that are thrown together in a hodgepodge manner, and some of the chapters even say (nearly) the exact same thing, border-line verbatim. (which made me feel ripped off, some parts almost seemed copy-pasted from an earlier chapter.)

    I recommend avoiding this author unless you have already read GOOD book on the man, such as Grotke, Ayrault Dodge, etc. there are literally dozens of good books on Alexander, and this is not one of them.

    If you are looking for a rough account of Alexander's life, from a man who has a pathetically shallow grasp of military discipline, tactics, strategy, and technology, this book may be for you. If you want a heavily biased account of Alexander from a pompous 'in-his-own-head' scholar, this book may be for you.

    I suggest, beginners and serious scholars alike however, look elsewhere.
    44 people found this helpful
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  • Liveonamazon
    5.0 out of 5 stars surprise
    Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2012
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    really enjoyed this book more than expected. definately one of those when you are just interested in it and you won't be dissapointed. fast shipping!!
    4 people found this helpful
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  • A just
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2017
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    Very helpful for my history class
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Eric Dethamphaivan
    2.0 out of 5 stars The author seems to dislike Alexander
    Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2022
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    100 pages in and I need to stop wasting my time on this book. The author doesn't seem to even like Alexander the Great whole I was just looking for a book to get excited about.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • ChasPitt
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great Condition
    Reviewed in Canada on July 28, 2020
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    Received earlier than estimation and in great condition
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  • P. Spencer
    5.0 out of 5 stars A good second read on Alexander
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 12, 2016
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    I wouldn't recommend this as your first, introductory book on Alexander because of the way it is structured, but I found it a fairly easy and engaging read even for a general reader like me. I don't know much beyond the Michael Wood series, but at least I had the basic narrative/chronology. This book is thematic/analytical - perhaps aimed more at an undergraduate audience, whether the author realised it or not (it does say it's based on years of university lectures). Useful maps, dramatis personae and timeline make do in lieu of a traditional narrative. I enjoyed it, but if it's your first foray into the story of Alexander the Great perhaps consider starting with something else. Michael Wood might be a good place to start.
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  • Dr. Hannes Pramer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Empfehlenswert!
    Reviewed in Germany on June 9, 2013
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    Das ist eines der derzeit besten Bücher, wenn nicht das beste, über Alexander den Großen!
    Der Autor berichtet überaus informativ, fair und lesenswert!
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  • Ronald W Davies
    3.0 out of 5 stars A scholarly work
    Reviewed in Canada on July 3, 2024
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    This is a scholarly academic book than a book . Knowing the basics of Alexander's life I cannot say that I learned a great deal more . The author provides a plethora of detail which are often repeated because of the way the book is structured . For the academic study of Alexander I would highly recommend this book but for the reader interested in the basics of Alexander's life it is sometimes a difficult slog
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  • Argyris Periferakis
    5.0 out of 5 stars An in depth exploration of the Macedonian Giant of the Classical Age.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 24, 2014
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    The author has produced one of the best biographies of Alexander tha I have ever read. However, this is more than a mere biography. It is rather a manual on how to read and understand the true story of Alexander, through the various sources and testimonies. Having presented a brief and comprehensive storyline of all the events the author then procedes to analyze methodically the accuracy and reliability of all the contemporary extant sources. Read this book and discover the genious and achievements of Alexander the Great, while exploring the dark roads one may find himself in, when rulling all the known world.
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