Ancient Greece: State and Society

This is a short lively book on two centuries in one city - 5th and 4th century Athens. The first 50 pages give quick context on the Greek world from 6500 BC. This is very helpful towards understanding the great stories of the past that Athenians all knew, and explaining the origin of the Athenian city plan and political order. Jones's vivid account of Mycenean palaces gave me a whole new sense of Homer and the characters in Greek tragedy. Then the book settles into the city. Jones describes its physical arrangement, government and religion, the main political and economic groups, family structure, and the life patterns of typical occupations: farmers, laborers, craftsmen. Jones has a great way of picking lively details. My favorite is his account of archaeological finds on a street that Socrates used to frequent. It is a very good balance of overview and detail, for a quick look at Athens.One striking feature of the book is how clearly Jones describes other interpretations competing with his own, and how he uses that to make the book more lively and attractive. It does not come across as bickering, but as exploring possibilities. He is generous enough to give sympathetic accounts of many other views (though I suppose the people he disagrees with may not agree with me!). Much of this material is necessarily conjectural, as the sources are quite sparse. Jones makes a few very helpful remarks on the the extent of existing archaeological evidence.And of course the book gives good suggestions for further reading on many topics.