"Alexander the Great"

It’s odd that, for a man of his renown, it has been years since a new book has been published about him. He continues to be regarded as one of the principal shapers of our western civilization. The Romans paid homage and offered sacrifices to him and the scholars of the Middle Ages studied his feats of conquest. His fame will soon be rediscovered, however! Alexander the Great is about to become a household personality with a new movie soon to premiere and scads of newly printed books to grace the shelves of public libraries and coffee tables in homes around the world.

“Alexander the Great, the Hunt for a New Past” by Paul Cartledge, a professor of Greek history and the chairman of the Classics Faculty at Cambridge University, is a rousing and insightful book written by one of the world’s leading experts in Greek history.

Alexander (356-323 BC) studied philosophy with Aristotle, inherited the kingship of Macedon from his father Philip, and went on to conquer the Persian Empire and much of India. The author recounts Alexander's remarkable political and military accomplishments and takes the reader on the rough and dangerous route of conquest through the known and unknown world of the time. Cartledge formulates a new interpretation of why and how Alexander is endlessly fascinating. The culture and the state of the world at that time become alive under the writer’s descriptive genius. Four hundred years before Christ, this man emerged to become a god and to spread the culture of Greece throughout the world. By knowing more about Alexander, the author believes we can better understand the virtues and pitfalls of charismatic leadership, imperialism, and Middle Eastern geopolitics.

A second new book owned by the Library is a coffee-table type book generously interspersed with maps and color photographs of ancient artifacts from the lands traversed by his armies. “Alexander the Conqueror, the Epic Story of the Warrior King” by Laura Foreman, while it isn’t as scholarly written as Cartledge’s, it does a good job of acquainting the reader with the exploits of this heroic character. The reader will be fascinated by the author’s description of the omens surrounding Alexander’s birth, his precocious boyhood, and his love for warfare. Just as Alexander’s life was a journey interrupted by one military campaign after another, the book also is a record of his journey with a play-by-play account of his battles, military strategies, and victories.

The third new book is entitled “Alexander the Great: Son of the Gods: An Intimate Portrait of the World’s Greatest Conqueror”. The author, Alan Fildes, presents Alexander in an engrossing and readable biography. Arranged in a year-by-year chronology, the author describes this legendary man, who in less than two decades, created the greatest empire the world had ever known. Again, this author recounts the daily life on the march, the hardships faced by his men and Alexander’s bouts of drinking and feasting, which may have contributed to his early death.

And, not to be excluded, no less than the American Management Association has also published a book about him, “The Wisdom of Alexander the Great: Enduring Leadership Lessons from the Man Who Created an Empire.” In this book, the author, Lance Kurke, discusses the passions that drove him to conquer the world, his personality, and his goals. How was he a product of his times? And how did his existence affect our world?