Alexander the Great: The Hunt for a New Past
About this audiobook
Paul Cartledge, one of the world’s foremost scholars of ancient Greece, illuminates the brief but iconic life of Alexander (356–323 BC), 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.
About the author
Paul Cartledge has taught Greek history at Cambridge University since 1979 and is also a Fellow at Clare College. Widely acknowledged to be the world’s leading expert on the subject of Sparta and ancient Greece, he is the first A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture (2008) which focuses on the study of more than 1,000 years of Greek cultural achievements and highlights the lasting influence they continue to have on society today. In addition to having written and edited scores of articles and books, including The Spartans: An Epic History; and Thermopylae: The Battle that Changed the World, he is also academic consultant to the BBC and PBS for the series The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization.
British narrator John Lee has read audiobooks in almost every conceivable genre, from Charles Dickens to Patrick O'Brian, and from the very real life of Napoleon to the entirely imagined lives of sorcerers and swashbucklers. He has won numerous Audie Awards and AudioFile Earphones Awards, and he was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile in 2009. Lee is also an accomplished stage actor and wrote and coproduced the feature films Breathing Hard and Forfeit.
