This is the worst book I have ever reviewed. It reads as if it has been cut and pasted from a website by a semi-literate schoolgirl (in my proof copy, King talks of Greek cities ‘still under the [Persian] yolk’) struggling with her GCSE coursework. Doubtless a great deal of labour has gone into it, but to little purpose when the author’s ignorance on many topics is encyclopedic, her ability to clarify and marshal arguments based on evidence that demands careful handling almost non-existent, and her English style execrable (her favourite conjunction is ‘and so’).

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