The Shortest History of Greece

'From Alpha to Omega, and from Socrates to Syriza, here is all of Greek history, expertly told' TOM HOLLAND, author of Dominion. Philosophy, art, democracy, language, even computers -- our world has been shaped by the products of Greek civilisation. Yet most of us know little about a people and a place that have given us so much. Pericles and the Parthenon may be familiar, but what of Epaminondas, the Theban general who saved the Greek world from Spartan tyranny? Alexander the Great's fame has rolled down the centuries, but the glorious Hellenistic Age that came after him is largely forgotten. 'Byzantine' often conjures a vague notion of decadence and deadly intrigue, yet the 1,000-year empire ruled from Constantinople saved Europe twice from invasion and was, in fact, Greek. The story of modern Greece, too, is a dramatic tale of triumph and catastrophe, from liberation and expansion through schism and home-grown dictatorship, Nazi occupation and civil war to today's nation -- battered by austerity, a transit camp for the casualties of the Middle East, at the front-line of climate change -- yet still proud of its values. In The Shortest History of Greece, James Heneage charts the odyssey of the Greeks through more than three millennia. As he does so, he uncovers a vital lesson -- one that may just help us fix our own democracies.

James Heneage set up the Ottakar's chain of bookshops before co-founding the Chalke Valley History Festival and turning his energies to writing his own books. The Mistra Chronicle, his quartet of historical novels set in the Byzantine era, was followed by A World On Fire, an epic adventure set during the Greek War of Independence in the 1820s. He lives in the Peloponnese with his wife, Charlotte.