J.B. Bury wrote his "History of Greece" before World War I, but it was such a good overview of classical Greek history that the third edition was still being used as a college textbook in the late 1960's. Although only selected portions of the text were assigned reading, I read the book cover to cover and have kept it to this day. Bury writes in a lucid, easily understood style that entertains as it educates. Although Bury recounts campaigns and battles in stirring fashion, he does not neglect the Greek contributions to politics, the arts, and sciences. Except for his obvious dislike of the Spartan King Agesilaus, I found Bury to be fair and even-handed in his evaluation of the peoples and events that shaped Greek history.

This book is MARVELOUS! It is almost the only book on Ancient Tree usage, it is the only one I know of, but his bibliography gives a few books that I've not seen nor read. THis book covers all the ancient Mediterranean world, from Lebannon to Cyprus to Greece. He actually wrote this book over a span of nearly 40 or so years, so it is very well written. Obviously not the sort of book that everyone may think is interesting, but it is and it is because Mr. Meiggs is a very good writer as well as scholar. If you can get ahold of this book it is worth the read.