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There seems to be no end of books about Alexander the Great. One would think that there was nothing more to say about the Macedonian conqueror. Alexander at the End of the World proves that there is still room for a book built around an original idea. Unlike most biographies of Alexander, which begin with his accession and trace his life until his death 13 years later, Kousser (the Graduate Center, CUNY) focuses on the final seven years of Alexander's reign, during which his campaign took him ever further from the world known to the Greeks. The result is real page-turner and one of the most original studies of Alexander to appear in many years. After a brief introduction, 19 brief chapters follow Alexander's campaign from the burning of Persepolis in 330 BCE to his death in 323 BCE. An epilogue on Alexander's posthumous influence closes the work. The book's strengths are clear: vivid accounts of the geography of the march, analysis of the growing tension between the Macedonian core of the army and Alexander, and Alexander's ability to learn from his mistakes and adapt to the needs of his empire.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

For advanced students and specialists, this tome will long remain a classic exposition of the Greco-Roman poleis. After examining the characteristics of the earlier Mycenaean palatial polities, this diachronic history of the polis is organized in three phases: Archaic (700-400 BCE), Classical (480-323 BCE), and Post-Classical (350 BCE-300 CE). The analysis unapologetically foregrounds Aristotle's emphasis on the "stateness" of the polis (with respect to institutions, law, and ideology), allowing a clearer, more nuanced understanding of its social and economic dimensions (without ignoring the latter two approaches). Throughout its long existence, Ma (Columbia Univ.) sees the polis as a political community intent on asserting its autonomy, self-governance, and unity through praxis, monumental art, and fiction (e.g., fictive kinship or common descent from a hero/god). Among the seminal moments in polis history is what is termed the "great convergence" (c. 350 BCE-300 CE), a period that witnessed the end of intra-polis hegemonic struggles, the universalization of office-holding accountability, and the spread of a democratic model (especially among the Levantine poleis). The book concludes with a trenchant examination of the positive and negative aspects of polis life. The bibliography and notes are outstanding.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.

Every ancient historian has been asked whether everything about ancient history is already known. The answer, of course, is "no." If a scholar of ancient history asks a new question, they will find something new. The Ancient Shore is a good example. Interest in the history of the Mediterranean and other seas in antiquity has grown steadily during the last 50 years. Kosmin's innovative work, however, is the first study of coasts as distinct transitional zones between land and sea, with particular emphasis on their significance in politics and culture during the Hellenistic Period. After a brief introduction, the book is divided into three sections--"Unity," "Claim-Making," and "Cosmos"--followed by an epilogue, notes, and an extensive bibliography. Particularly interesting is the first section, which vividly reconstructs the cosmopolitan culture of the ancient Indian Ocean as illustrated by the remarkable discoveries in the Hoq Cave on the island of Socotra. Throughout the book, Kosmin (Harvard Univ.) analyzes the coast's ambivalent role in Greek religion as the site of unnatural death, as evidenced in rituals, funerary monuments, and even a dedicated genre of epigrams.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.

Reliable books about premodern Korean history are uncommon, and the time period most opaque is the oldest era, the so-called Three Kingdoms period (57 BCE-935 CE). Part of this stems from the paucity of written materials from the time; indeed, most of what was written in Korea about the three kingdoms was published centuries later. Thus, much of what is said about the three kingdoms of Silla, Paekche, and Koguryo is open to interpretation and reliant on archaeology and Chinese and Japanese sources. McBride (Brigham Young Univ.) is eminently qualified to take up this challenge in this concise, well-written, and generously illustrated book. He not only covers politics, wars, and famous personas, but also includes separate chapters on religion and Buddhism. Several strong points throughout the book include the ways in which the author addresses debates about the three kingdoms and their rich connections to China, Japan, and long-gone premodern states in Northeast Asia. These two issues are connected--China and Japan have claimed that one kingdom or another was actually part of Chinese or Japanese history. This volume is, and will continue to be, the best available survey of the time period.Summing Up: Essential. General readers through faculty.