Alexander the Great : Journey to the End of the Earth

"Alexander's behavior was conditioned along certain lines -- heroism, courage, strength, superstition, bisexuality, intoxication, cruelty. He bestrode Europe and Asia like a supernatural figure." In this succinct portrait of Alexander the Great, distinguished scholar and historian Norman Cantor illuminates the personal life and military conquests of this most legendary of men. Cantor draws from the major writings of Alexander's contemporaries combined with the most recent psychological and cultural studies to show Alexander as he was -- a great figure in the ancient world whose puzzling personality greatly fueled his military accomplishments. He describes Alexander's ambiguous relationship with his father, Philip II of Macedon; his oedipal involvement with his mother, the Albanian princess Olympias; and his bisexuality. He traces Alexander's attempts to bridge the East and West, the Greek and Persian worlds, using Achilles, hero of the Trojan War, as his model. Finally, Cantor explores Alexander's view of himself in relation to the pagan gods of Greece and Egypt. More than a biography, Norman Cantor's Alexander the Great is a psychological rendering of a man of his time.

Best known for his books on the Middle Ages, Cantor here describes how, three centuries before Christ, the young hero led an army of Macedonians and Greeks on a route through the Middle East and Central Asia that intersects the recent tactical deployment of the US Army and Marines. He has minimized the romance and fantasies associated with Alexander in order to construct a critical assessment of the man and the world he lived in. The book is not indexed. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Library Journal

One hesitates to question the decision to publish this biography owing to its author's credentials-Cantor was professor emeritus of history, sociology, and comparative literature at NYU before dying in 2004. Here, he wishes to consider four preeminent recent historians of Alexander: A.B. Bosworth, Robin Lane Fox, N.G.L. Hammond, and Peter Green, but early on he drifts into the treacherous topic of Alexander's personality. Readers are offered a Freudian rationalization of Alexander's relationship with his mother and father that claims Alexander was the classic paradigm of an Oedipus complex. Furthermore, Cantor notes that Alexander's sex life and sexual proclivities have always been the subject of much conjecture and proceeds to add his own, while admitting that Alexander was not atypical of his age and environment. Ultimately, the question is this: does scholarship need a chapter titled How `Great' Was Alexander?, which is too brief an effort to consider the modern scholarship stated in the beginning as the main focus of the work. That discussion might have been more effective at the onset so that readers could understand better the difficulties facing historians of that pivotal period. An optional purchase. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/04.]-Clay Williams, Hunter Coll., New York Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

"Alexander's behavior was conditioned along certain lines -- heroism, courage, strength, superstition, bisexuality, intoxication, cruelty. He bestrode Europe and Asia like a supernatural figure." In this succinct portrait of Alexander the Great, distinguished scholar and historian Norman Cantor illuminates the personal life and military conquests of this most legendary of men. Cantor draws from the major writings of Alexander's contemporaries combined with the most recent psychological and cultural studies to show Alexander as he was -- a great figure in the ancient world whose puzzling personality greatly fueled his military accomplishments. He describes Alexander's ambiguous relationship with his father, Philip II of Macedon; his oedipal involvement with his mother, the Albanian princess Olympias; and his bisexuality. He traces Alexander's attempts to bridge the East and West, the Greek and Persian worlds, using Achilles, hero of the Trojan War, as his model. Finally, Cantor explores Alexander's view of himself in relation to the pagan gods of Greece and Egypt. More than a biography, Norman Cantor's __Alexander the Great__ is a psychological rendering of a man of his time. "In this succinct portrait of Alexander the Great, distinguished scholar and historian Norman Cantor illuminates the personal life and military conquests of this most legendary of men. Cantor draws from the major writings of Alexander's contemporaries combined with the most recent psychological and cultural studies to show Alexander as he was -- a great figure in the ancient world whose puzzling personality greatly fueled his military accomplishments. He describes Alexander's ambiguous relationship with his father, Philip II of Macedon; his oedipal involvement with his mother, the Albanian princess Olympias; and his bisexuality. He traces Alexander's attempts to bridge the East and West, the Greek and Persian worlds, using Achilles, hero of the Trojan War, as his model. Finally, Cantor explores Alexander's view of himself in relation to the pagan gods of Greece and Egypt. More than a biography, Norman Cantor's Alexander the Great is a psychological rendering of a man of his time."--Publisher description From the Preface... RECENT EVENTS in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan have drawn our attention again to Alexander the Great. Three hundred years before Christ, this hero of antiquity led an army of Macedonians and Greeks on a route through the Middle East and Central Asia that intersected with the recent tactical deployment of the U.S. Army and Marines. The first Western ruler to attempt a war of conquest in the Middle East and Central Asia, Alexander triumphed. But his army was no more comfortable than American forces have been in the difficult terrain and climate of Kabul, Baghdad, and surrounding territories. In this book I have minimized the romance and fantasies associated with Alexander, trying instead to construct a critical and well-rounded assessment of the man and the world in which he lived. Chronicles The Life Of Macedonian Emperor Alexander The Great, Examining His Accomplishments, His Relationships With His Parents, His Bisexuality, His View Of Himself In Relation To The Greek And Egyptian Gods, And The Ethos Of The Age In Which He Lived. The Greek World -- Who Was Alexander? -- The March Of Conquest -- The Last Years -- How Great Was Alexander? Norman F. Cantor, With Dee Ranieri. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 179-180). Describes Alexander's relations with his parents, his Oedipal complex and his bisexuality. This book shows Alexander's attempts to bridge the East and West, the Greek and Persian worlds, especially using Achilles, the hero of the Trojan War, as his model. It explores Alexander's view of himself in relation to the pagan gods of Greece and Egypt. ANCIENT GREECE, extending from the kingdom of Macedonia in the north down to the city-state of Sparta in the south, was a large peninsula or archipelago jutting out into the Aegean Sea. Title from ebook title screen (viewed Dec. 20, 2005).