## From Publishers Weekly
The last work of the late historian Cantor (In the Wake of the Plague) is a flat and uninspiring study of a leader of gigantic proportions and unparalleled courage. Drawing heavily on previous modern biographies, as well as on biographical sketches from Plutarch, Arrian and other ancient writers, Cantor recreates Alexander's world, his military campaigns and his family life. Cantor mechanically traces Alexander's military exploits through Persia, Jerusalem and India, where he often freed the people of one region from a tyrant and then enslaved them himself. In tantalizing brevity, Cantor provides a picture of the bloody civil wars, the superstition and fears, and the environment of honor and shame in which the young prince grew up. Alexander's reputation as a chivalrous leader developed much later, Cantor says, both in the Alexandrine romances of the first century and in Christian legend and lore of the Middle Ages. The author clearly demonstrates that Alexander's greatness derives primarily from his abilities as a field commander rather than from his abilities as a political leader. Regrettably, Cantor offers no startling information that would help distinguish his short biography from the more complete and detailed works of Robin Lane Fox, Peter Green or Michael Wood. Map.
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
## From
__Starred Review__ Has the famous Macedonian king been "done to death"? Several biographies of the conqueror of what was then the "known" world have appeared recently; however, turn to this extremely useful one for its incomparable mix of insight and cogency. Professor Cantor, author of, among other books, the best-selling __In the Wake of the Plague__ (2001), begins with a trenchant explanation of the context for understanding Alexander--the tenets of ancient Greek culture--which is matched, as if by a second bookend, by the author's equally solid concluding--chapter summation of the man's "greatness." In between lies the heart of the book, in which Cantor, easing the reader along in an effortlessly styled, smoothly flowing narrative, reconstructs the events in Alexander's life; but more difficultly, given the expanse of time between then and now, he offers a valid evaluation of the man's character. Military exploits (in Alexander's case, of course, __military talents__) are excitingly revivified, and honesty is the hallmark of Cantor's appreciation of Alexander's relationship with his longtime male lover, Hephaestion. A book that does the biographical art proud. __Brad Hooper__
__Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved__

lgrsnf/Z:\Bibliotik_\9\156.34.80.41\Norman F. Cantor & Dee Ranieri-Alexander the Great_ journey to the end of the earth_4690.epub

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zlib/Biography & Autobiography/Historical/Cantor, Norman F.;Ranieri, Dee/Alexander the Great: journey to the end of the earth_5900048.epub

Norman F. Cantor, with Dee Ranieri

HarperCollins Publishers

HarperCollins e-books

Longman Publishing

Harper Perennial

United States, United States of America

HarperCollins, [Pymble, NSW], 2005

New York, USA, London, UK, 2005

New York, New York State, 2005

1st, First Edition, US, 2005

HarperCollins, [S.I.], 2009

1st ed, New York :, c2005

United States, 2008

December 1, 2007

New York, 2007

Reprint, 2007

lg2599043

{"isbns":["0060570121","006057013X","9780060570125","9780060570132"],"last_page":180,"publisher":"HarperCollins;HarperPerennial"}

Includes bibliographical references.

<p>Best known for his books on the Middle Ages, Cantor here describes how, three centuries before Christ, the young hero led an army of Macedonians and Greeks on a route through the Middle East and Central Asia that intersects the recent tactical deployment of the US Army and Marines. He has minimized the romance and fantasies associated with Alexander in order to construct a critical assessment of the man and the world he lived in. The book is not indexed. Annotation &copy;2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR</p> <h3>Library Journal</h3> <p>One hesitates to question the decision to publish this biography owing to its author's credentials-Cantor was professor emeritus of history, sociology, and comparative literature at NYU before dying in 2004. Here, he wishes to consider four preeminent recent historians of Alexander: A.B. Bosworth, Robin Lane Fox, N.G.L. Hammond, and Peter Green, but early on he drifts into the treacherous topic of Alexander's personality. Readers are offered a Freudian rationalization of Alexander's relationship with his mother and father that claims Alexander was the classic paradigm of an Oedipus complex. Furthermore, Cantor notes that Alexander's sex life and sexual proclivities have always been the subject of much conjecture and proceeds to add his own, while admitting that Alexander was not atypical of his age and environment. Ultimately, the question is this: does scholarship need a chapter titled How `Great' Was Alexander?, which is too brief an effort to consider the modern scholarship stated in the beginning as the main focus of the work. That discussion might have been more effective at the onset so that readers could understand better the difficulties facing historians of that pivotal period. An optional purchase. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/04.]-Clay Williams, Hunter Coll., New York Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.</p>

"Alexander's behavior was conditioned along certain lines -- heroism, courage, strength, superstition, bisexuality, intoxication, cruelty. He bestrode Europe and Asia like a supernatural figure." In this succinct portrait of Alexander the Great, distinguished scholar and historian Norman Cantor illuminates the personal life and military conquests of this most legendary of men. Cantor draws from the major writings of Alexander's contemporaries combined with the most recent psychological and cultural studies to show Alexander as he was -- a great figure in the ancient world whose puzzling personality greatly fueled his military accomplishments. He describes Alexander's ambiguous relationship with his father, Philip II of Macedon; his oedipal involvement with his mother, the Albanian princess Olympias; and his bisexuality. He traces Alexander's attempts to bridge the East and West, the Greek and Persian worlds, using Achilles, hero of the Trojan War, as his model. Finally, Cantor explores Alexander's view of himself in relation to the pagan gods of Greece and Egypt. More than a biography, Norman Cantor's Alexander the Great is a psychological rendering of a man of his time.

"In this succinct portrait of Alexander the Great, distinguished scholar and historian Norman Cantor illuminates the personal life and military conquests of this most legendary of men. Cantor draws from the major writings of Alexander's contemporaries combined with the most recent psychological and cultural studies to show Alexander as he was -- a great figure in the ancient world whose puzzling personality greatly fueled his military accomplishments. He describes Alexander's ambiguous relationship with his father, Philip II of Macedon; his oedipal involvement with his mother, the Albanian princess Olympias; and his bisexuality. He traces Alexander's attempts to bridge the East and West, the Greek and Persian worlds, using Achilles, hero of the Trojan War, as his model. Finally, Cantor explores Alexander's view of himself in relation to the pagan gods of Greece and Egypt. More than a biography, Norman Cantor's Alexander the Great is a psychological rendering of a man of his time."--Publisher description

From the Preface...
RECENT EVENTS in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan have drawn our attention again to Alexander the Great. Three hundred years before Christ, this hero of antiquity led an army of Macedonians and Greeks on a route through the Middle East and Central Asia that intersected with the recent tactical deployment of the U.S. Army and Marines.
The first Western ruler to attempt a war of conquest in the Middle East and Central Asia, Alexander triumphed. But his army was no more comfortable than American forces have been in the difficult terrain and climate of Kabul, Baghdad, and surrounding territories.
In this book I have minimized the romance and fantasies associated with Alexander, trying instead to construct a critical and well-rounded assessment of the man and the world in which he lived.

Chronicles The Life Of Macedonian Emperor Alexander The Great, Examining His Accomplishments, His Relationships With His Parents, His Bisexuality, His View Of Himself In Relation To The Greek And Egyptian Gods, And The Ethos Of The Age In Which He Lived. The Greek World -- Who Was Alexander? -- The March Of Conquest -- The Last Years -- How Great Was Alexander? Norman F. Cantor, With Dee Ranieri. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 179-180).

ANCIENT GREECE, extending from the kingdom of Macedonia in the north down to the city-state of Sparta in the south, was a large peninsula or archipelago jutting out into the Aegean Sea.

Title from ebook title screen (viewed Dec. 20, 2005).

2020-07-26