The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World(ISBN=9780140293234)

　　Charles Freeman's The Greek Achievement traces the entire course of ancient Greek history across thousands of years--from the Mycenaean and Minoan civilizations of the Bronze Age through the Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods. This brilliant account celebrates the incredible range of Greek achievement: the architectural marvels of the Athenian Acropolis; the birth of drama and the timeless tragedies of Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles; Homer's epics; the philosophical revolutions of Plato and Aristotle; and the conquests of Alexander the Great.
　　Lavishly illustrated with photographs and maps, The Greek Achievement paints a sweeping panorama of the ancient Greeks' world and provides a rich, contemporary overview of their enduring contribution to world civilization.

　　Charles Freeman is the author of Egypt, Greece and Rome: Civilization of the Ancient Mediterranean and Legacies of the Ancient Egyptians, among other books.

Recreating the world of Ancient Greece
the formation of the Greek world
Homer's world - heroes and the coming of city-state
an expanding world - 800-550 BC
new identities - the consolidation of the city-state
underlying patterns - land and slavery
underlying patterns - spiritual life
revolutions in wisdom - new directions in the Archaic age
creating the Barbarian - the Persian Wars
the fifth century - the politics of power 479-404 BC
the Athenian democracy
homage for Dionysus - the drama festivals
man is the measure - philosophers and speculators, 450-330 BC
relationships
transitions - the Greek world in the fourth century BC
Alexander
the Hellenistic world
mathematics, science and medicine
the Greeks and Rome
the Greeks in the Roman empire
conclusion - the Greek achievement.