The Early Greeks

by R.J. Hopper, Robert John Hopper

This book is especially valuable for its combination of political, economic & social history, literature, archeology & philosophy into one whole picture of this fascinating subject. It should help the reader, general or specialist, gain a genuine insight into Greek history.
Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
The Geographical Background
Crete & the Greeks
Prehistoric Greece
Obscurity & Recovery
Expansion & Innovation
The Beginning of Consolidation: Tyrants & Hoplites
The Abnormal States
The Foundation of Classical Greece
References & Notes
Bibliography
Maps
Index

Genres: History, Archaeology, Nonfiction

257 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Robert John Hopper, FSA (1910 – 3 July 1987), known as R. J. Hopper, was an archaeologist and historian of Ancient Greece. He was Professor of Ancient History at the University of Sheffield. He was Dean of the university's Faculty of Arts from 1967 to 1970.

Reviews

[Rick Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Early Greeks by R.J. Hopper is a difficult book to rate because it attempts to cover, in an academic way, a huge chunk of history. As such, certain parts of the book were much better than others, and the book doesn’t build momentum or have a specific story to tell. As such, I’m going to review the book overall and then say a bit about each chapter.

On a positive note, the book is well-researched and full of good information. I really appreciated the fact that the author tries to synthesize ancient historians with the findings of archaeology. Often archaeologists and historians find themselves at an impasse. I think that in many places he is too skeptical of the record of history and gives too much weight to the, admittedly, incomplete record obtained from archaeology. But it was nice to see both at the forefront of the argument being interwoven.

On the other hand, I felt like this book commits the opposite error to most popular history books. Many books written for popular audiences state speculative reconstructions of history as if they were absolute fact and draw sensational conclusions that are not necessarily warranted by the research in order to interest readers. Hopper seems to be afraid to draw any sort of conclusion whatever about anything. This is a book that largely misses the forest for the trees. So while I have a much better understanding of the distribution of Late Helladic pottery or the development and spread of the Geometric Style, these things were presented as disconnected facts. In fact, whenever Hopper tries to draw some conclusion from the archaeological findings, he is careful to preface any conclusion, no matter how small, with lots of warnings that what he is saying is simply a conclusion drawn from the data, and that it could be proven wrong by later data, and that we really shouldn’t try to draw any large conclusions anyway. While I admire his restraint, it doesn’t make for interesting reading, and it kills any possibility of suggesting a narrative for the early Greeks’ history beyond mere bean-counting.

In a similar vein, I wonder who this book is intended for anyway. Hopper makes the purposeful decision to include footnotes only for direct quotations from historic works so that the book doesn’t become too expensive or get bogged down with notes. He wants the book available to a wide readership. Then he proceeds to use technical language from his field of study, to assume a depth of knowledge about Mycenaean and Greek history that goes far beyond what most people would be expected to have from their high school history classes, and, in general, is boring. The high knowledge demand coupled with the lack of cohesive narrative effectively shuts the book off from those members of the general public who want an overview of early Greek history. None of these things would be a problem though for someone interested in reading it out of academic interest. But then again, if your audience is academic, why not throw in the footnotes and a better bibiliography?

All that aside: here’s a rundown on each chapter.

1. The Geographical Background
This chapter does a good job of showing how the topography of mainland Greece and Anatolia shaped Greek history. I had to have a map open from a different book though, because the very few maps in the back of this book are way too vague to be useful. This was intended, once again, to be a cost-saving measure according to the preface.

2. Crete and the Greeks
This chapter explores the importance of Crete in the Greek imagination. Though this isn’t a book about the Minoan Civilization, Crete is nonetheless a huge component of many later Greek myths and legends showing that Crete had an important role to play in early Greek civilization. I liked this chapter and Hopper does a good job connecting history and legend.

3. Prehistoric Greece
This chapter deals with the Mycenaean age, which is what I was initially hoping the entire book would be about. With the dearth of contemporary records, Hopper relies heavily on archaeology. This chapter really shows the author’s tendency to avoid drawing conclusions at all costs. There is a lot of good archaeological information in this chapter, but it is all more or less disconnected from an argument with a main thesis. He’s simply throwing out facts.

4. Obscurity and Recovery
5. Expansion and Innovation
These two chapters cover the Greek Dark Age. After the Mycenaean Age ended, the ability to write in Linear Script B was lost. The art of writing would not return until the adoption of the Phoenecian alphabet. Thus we have a time period about which we know nothing but what the archaeological record shows. Lots of info about potter, but once again a reluctance to tell a big picture story.

6. The Beginning of Consolidation: Tyrants and Hoplites
7. The Abnormal States
8. The Foundations of Classical Greece
The last three chapters of the book bring us to the time period in which we have some written history. Things are much better here, and I enjoyed reading these chapters. This shows the development of the Greek city states leading up to the Classical age. It is here that Hopper’s scholarly carefulness is seen to full advantage.

So would I recommend this book overall? Not unless you have a good timeline for early Greek history already in place. This is not an introductory book! This is also not bedtime reading. However, if you’re interested in an academic history of early Greece, this will give you a good overview of the (somewhat dated by this point) evidence and documents historians and archaeologists use to build a picture of this time period.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides a good general introduction to Greece prior to, but with an eye towards, the classical age. The Minoans are discussed, but the emphasis is on the Mycenaean civilization.