I didn't know it at the time, but this was the first book by Isaac Asimov I read. It's not a science fiction book, it's a history book.
I was in 8th grade and needed to read to write a book report. I found this one in the library. I've always had a thing for history it's in my blood.
It's a fantastic book. Easy to read, but it covers Greek history from early settlers through the 20th century.
What struck me as odd was the Asimov would put in a commentary from time to time giving the reader perspective other that just names, dates and battles.
In 9th grade a friend of mine loaned me his book of Nine Tomorrows by Asimov and from there I read a ton of his books over many years. When my son was in middle school, I had him read Nine Tomorrows, and then his robot stories and he fell in love the Foundation Trilogy.
When I started teaching world history, I went to the library to see if they had this book available. It was in the main library, and they sent it on loan to my school. I was surprised that he wrote this book, and that he wrote many other histories. The Roman Republic, the Roman Empire, Western Asia, Egypt, England, France and others. I ordered those books, read them and added them to my curriculum. Each book had a timeline. I copied them and gave them out to the students. The books are long out of print and very few libraries carry them. A great pity as they are the best books out there for a young adult to fall in love with history.
They have never been available to the general public. I think the publisher didn't consider them marketable in a regular book store.
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