Current Publications



Johann Gustav Droysen
Translated from the German by Flora Kimmich
Preface by G.W. Bowersock; Foreword by A.B. Bosworth

Paper, 628 pages (22 front matter, 606 text)

$35.00

978-1-60618-023-5



Flora Kimmich has translated J. G. Droysen's classic History of Alexander the Great into English for the first time. Through her masterly rendering, she brings this foundational work of modern historiography of the ancient world to a new audience. Based entirely on ancient sources, this is an exhaustive, beautifully narrated account of Alexander, from the origins of the ancient Macedonian kingdom to Alexander's death in Babylon in 323 B.C.

Droysen's interpretation of Alexander, first published in 1833 by a 25-year-old Privatdozent, is colored both by the idealistic exuberance of German romanticism and the wars of liberation and, in a substantially revised second edition published in 1877, by the imperial optimism of a newly consolidated Germany.

This translation of the 1877 edition, with complete notes, does full justice to Droysen's celebrated prose style.

The monograph is enhanced with special introductory selections by Glen W. Bowersock (Professor Emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study) and Brian Bosworth (Senior Honorary Research Fellow, University of Western Australia.

Flora Kimmich translates from German and from French.