Overall a good, broad tour through recent academic reflections on "the Classics". Would have been four stars except for the author's insistence that if a book or essay focused on one thing to the exclusion of another, her review was that the book/essay was weak because it didn't explore that other topic. My issue with this is that she doesn't allow other authors to set their own boundaries for their work. Her saving grace is that in the epilogue she says that she writes nothing in a review that she wouldn't (or hasn't) said directly to the author's face.

Not for the faint of heart, this is dense literary review. I haven't read many of the original sources (and none in the original languages), but reading this makes me want to.

pg. 35. Another mistranslation of Thucydides - "words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them" - is often taken as a precursor to Orwell's Newspeak (a la 1984). However, a more accurate translation is here given to be "they exchanged their usual verbal evaluations of actions for new ones, in the light of what they thought justified." Meaning more along the lines of 'what was once called terrorism, is now called patriotism'. Which is much more common in modern times (especially if you reverse the two 'ism's...) ( )

Almost totally adapted from several years worth of book reviews, this is a fascinating survey of Greek and (mostly) Roman history by a woman who seems to know it all. At least she purports to know a lot more than the authors of most of the books she is reviewing! But she's absolutely convincing and a very good writer (check out SPQR). Who knew about the problems with translating Thucydides and Tacitus, for instance? Much of what we think we know from these writers may be the result of less than accurate--although highly memorable--translations. Beard argues that the classics are still alive and well despite the great decrease in knowledge of classical languages. Her argument is pretty convincing. A very enjoyable and enlightening read. ( )

I read about 2/3. Disappointed that they were article and book reviews in the main.

After studying Latin for six years and Greek for two, I am a bit nerdy about ancient Rome, so I quite enjoyed this collection of reviews and essays by Mary Beard, whose frank evaluations are both entertaining and enlightening. ( )

http://www.susanhatedliterature.net/2018/09/confronting-the-classics/ ( )