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About the Author

Don Nardo has written many books for young people. He specializes in history and loves writing about ancient civilizations.
Image credit: GoodReads

Series

Works by Don Nardo

Egyptian Mythology (Mythology) (2001) 26 copies, 1 review
The Roman Empire (1994) 23 copies
The Roman Republic (1994) 22 copies
Readings on the Canterbury Tales (1997) — Editor — 20 copies
The Medieval Castle (Building History) (1998) 20 copies, 1 review
Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire (2010) 18 copies, 1 review
Readings on Hamlet (1998) — Editor — 17 copies
Readings on Homer (1997) — Editor — 17 copies
The Scopes Trial (1997) 15 copies
Readings on a Tale of Two Cities (1997) — Editor — 15 copies
Chernobyl (World Disasters) (1990) 15 copies, 1 review
The Trial of Joan of Arc (1997) 14 copies, 1 review
Charles Darwin (1993) 13 copies
Readings on Romeo and Juliet (1997) — Editor — 13 copies
Daily Life in Ancient Greece (2015) 13 copies, 1 review
Eyes on the Sky - Pluto (2002) 13 copies
Readings on Sophocles (1996) — Editor — 12 copies
Krakatoa (World Disasters) (1990) 12 copies, 1 review
The Trial of Socrates (1997) 12 copies
Medusa (Monsters) (2004) 11 copies, 2 reviews
Daily Life in Ancient Rome (2015) 10 copies
Readings on Antigone (1999) — Editor — 10 copies
King Arthur (Heroes & Villains) (2003) 10 copies, 1 review
Human Papillomavirus (HPV) (2007) 10 copies
Biological Warfare (2006) 9 copies
Sculpture (Eye on Art) (2006) 9 copies
The Vikings (World History Series) (2005) 9 copies, 1 review
Daily Life in the Islamic Golden Age (2015) 8 copies, 1 review
Life in Ancient Greece (Living History) (2015) 8 copies, 1 review
Cyclops (Monsters) (2004) 8 copies
Mozart (1997) 7 copies
Architecture (Eye on Art) (2007) 7 copies
Readings on Frankenstein (2000) — Editor — 7 copies
Readings on Julius Caesar (1999) — Editor — 7 copies
Inventors and Creators - Walt Disney (2002) 6 copies, 1 review
The Great Wall of China (Great Idea) (2014) 6 copies, 1 review
Eyes on the Sky - Neptune (2002) 6 copies
Exploring Norse Mythology (2023) 5 copies
Readings on Othello (2000) — Editor — 5 copies
Ancient Rome (Daily Life) (2001) 5 copies
Drugs and sports (1990) 5 copies
The Fall of Rome (2015) 5 copies
Medieval Europe (World History) (2011) 5 copies, 1 review
Islamic Empire, The (World History) (2011) 5 copies, 1 review
Frida Kahlo (Eye on Art) (2012) 3 copies
Ancient Egypt (2019) 3 copies
The Battle of Saratoga (2008) 2 copies
U-X-L World Eras: 10 Volume set (2016) 2 copies, 1 review
The battle of Zama (1996) 2 copies, 1 review
The Alamo (World History) (2012) 2 copies
Climate change (2009) 2 copies
Painting (Eye on Art) (2012) 2 copies
Telescopes (2005) 2 copies
Odysseus (2015) 2 copies
Evolution (The History of Issues) (2004) 1 copy, 1 review
Vegan diets (2014) 1 copy
Cloak of Destiny (2014) 1 copy
Bernie Madoff (2011) 1 copy
Missiles (2013) 1 copy
Helicopters (2013) 1 copy
The Etruscans (2004) 1 copy
Ivan the terrible (2005) 1 copy
Recycling (1992) 1 copy
The Big Bang (2005) 1 copy
Oil Spills: Hot Topics (2011) 1 copy
King Arthur 1 copy
The 1940's (2004) 1 copy
Aztec mythology (2014) 1 copy

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Birthdate
1947-02-22
Gender
male
Education
home schooled
Syracuse University
Worcester State College
Occupations
historian
composer
writer
Short biography
Don Nardo is a historian and award-winning writer who specializes in the ancient world, especially the civilizations of Greece and Rome. He taught high school for eight years, while writing part-time, before devoting himself to his research and book-writing full time. In the past two decades, he has published nearly 200 volumes on diverse historical topics. And having earned numerous favorable reviews, he is widely recognized as the country's leading writer of historical works for young adults. Mr. Nardo also composes and arranges symphonic music and writes screenplays and teleplays.
Nationality
USA
Birthplace
Columbia, Missouri, USA
Places of residence
Natick, Massachusetts, USA
New York, New York, USA
Mashpee, Massachusetts, USA
Associated Place (for map)
USA

Members

Reviews

56 reviews
Serviceable, but way too teleological. The people, the locations, the theories, the schools, all that is good. But with every instance of an ancient Greek cosmological or physical hypothesis that has some superficial resemblance to what we moderns know and the originating philosopher gets an implied gold star for being "almost right".
½
Despite its title, this brief adolescent history (about 90 pages) devotes only one chapter to the Battle of Zama. More accurately, the book is a general overview of the history of Rome's Punic wars with Carthage. At best, this is a sufficient overview for beginners, although much interesting detail is omitted. More concerning are glaring factual inaccuracies. For example, Rome did not sow Carthage with salt after its destruction in 146 BC.
This book gets points for bringing together some of the greatest minds in science to discuss the topic of evolution. It loses points for the mealy-mouthed comments of the editor, who manages to make it sound like there really is a true controversy among scientists about evolution. He presents it as though there is a balanced argument on both sides, and hey, we can't know for sure, so can't we all play nice? This is not an accurate look at the issue, and many of the speakers he brought in on show more the side of "not evolution" demonstrated their lack of understanding of evolutionary theory. True to the spirit of every story has two (equal) sides, he managed to make it sound as though the proponents of evolution were merely giving their "opinion". This was OK in the early chapters, when he was just looking at the beginning of the controversy, and it could still be debated rationally whether evolution had, in fact, occurred. In the latter portion of the book, moving from the Modern Synthesis to the 21st century, this becomes less acceptable, as the commentary on the articles is misleading and gives the reader permission to say, hey, I have a different idea, and my idea is equal to evolution, because there really isn't any evidence, is there? Except, of course, there is. Lots of it. And this book does a disservice to that evidence by watering it down with timid commentary that points you in the direction of believe what you want, it's all good. Not a bad look at the history of the controversy; but not a very good discussion of the current state of the "controversy", which exists only outside of science, where people are ill-informed by books like this one. show less
A reasonably well-written book marred by poor editorial choices. Most appropriate for YA, where available, due to the sophistication of the writing. "Difficult" words, which are designated so more or less arbitrarily are glossed in many quotations with an ugly bracket system. The quotations are taken from translations of original sources and the works of more or less contemporary historians.

Presents the history of classical Greece as a gradually deepening conflict between the two cities of show more Sparta and Athens, with the Persian Wars as a fairly brief interruption. The conflict, presented this way, seems analogous to WWI, as a network of alliances dragged more and more allies into the war. As in WWI, the adversaries were evenly matched and had effective fighting forces, so the war dragged on and on, with great suffering over a deal of the Mediterranean. Eventually, exhausted, both formerly great powers were defeated by the Macedonian king, Philip.

Also covers the Athenian campaign in Egypt.
show less

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Awards

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Associated Authors

C. M. Bowra Contributor
Edith Hamilton Contributor
Jon Solomon Contributor
H. D. F. Kitto Contributor
Werner Jaeger Contributor
Cedric H. Whitman Contributor
Michael Grant Contributor
Ernle Bradford Contributor
Robert J. Lenardon Contributor
Walter F. Otto Contributor
George E. Dimock Contributor
M. S. Silk Contributor
J. Frank Papovich Contributor
Reynold Z. Burrows Contributor
S. L. Schein Contributor
Rachel Bespaloff Contributor
Mark P. O. Morford Contributor
Simone Weil Contributor
Jasper Griffin Contributor
Tycho Brahe Associated Name
Bernard M.W. Knox Contributor
Gilbert Murray Contributor
Herbert J. Muller Contributor
Sheldon Cheney Contributor
Arthur Holmberg Contributor
Mimi Kramer Contributor
Bruce Bower Contributor
Charles R. Walker Contributor
Frank B. Jevons Contributor
G. M. KIRKWOOD Contributor
Robert Fitzgerald Contributor
Rick M. Newton Contributor
Meyer Reinhold Contributor
Bernard Knox Contributor
Eva Cantarella Contributor
Jan Kott Contributor
John Ferguson Contributor
Gilbert Norwood Contributor
Peter D. Arnott Contributor
Eleanor Wilner Contributor
Sue Blundell Contributor

Statistics

Works
495
Members
3,974
Popularity
#6,354
Rating
½ 3.6
Reviews
55
ISBNs
892
Languages
1

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