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Review title: Not a fun read
Product review: I picked up this book after hearing an interview with the author on NPR. My interest in this era of Greek history is a recent one, sparked by an excellent documentary on The rise and fall of Sparta on the History Channel. So I'm a true layman. Kagan fails to make the story of the war fun to read. The narrative is dry, the descriptions too factual. I'm not sure what the audience for the book is. For instance, Kagan doesnt bother describing daily life in Athens or Sparta. So as a casual reader I have no idea what this war did to ordinary people, what was the effect on lives, how did people cope with the upheaval. I recently read books on the making of the atomic bomb by Richard Rhodes and evolution by Jonathan Weiner and both managed to take a difficult and dry subject and make reading about it a joy (both won the Pulitzer Prize). I wish someone would do the same for this subject.
