Michael Grant, the truth about him

[Habsburg]

Greetings,

I am a University student who is a History major. I am planning to go into Greco-Roman history.

I have heard to following about Michael Grant, a famous author of aound 30 books on ancient Greece and Rome, he has also written about other topics.

There are the claims from a Amer. Hist. professor I have:

~Michael Grant is *not a trained historian*, he has a Ph.D. in engineering, a totally different subject!

~He has written more popular rather than scholarly books.

~He mostly uses secondary sources (not primary) for the information in his books.


I would prefere information from someone that has at least some scholarly experience reading/studying history, please.


God Bless,

Habsburg

 

[Milla]

I've not heard of him, actually, but I'd have to say that none of those pieces of information are necessarily damning. It depends on what he purports to be presenting in his books, and what he's been representing himself as.

 

[Habsburg]

I think he is British, living in Italy.


I hope someone whgo reads ancient History books help me out here

Holy Roman Habsburg

 

[one love]

IF he has written 30 books he must know quite a bit and be revered. After all, Quentin Tarintino was a video clerk before he became a blockbuster movie director. Other than Rise and Fall I can't really recommend much else, maybe a few online PBS sources, they always do good documentaries.

 

[Habsburg]

one love,

True, Barbara Tuchman who is famous (I know of 2 of her books, one we are using next semester in my Intell. Comm. course) was, I believe a MA, not a Ph.D. Historian She won prizes left and right.

Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Smith both have a similar past to Tarintino, I believe. You know coming from a non-trained background, but never the less having tremendous skills!

Sinc.

Cas.

 

[Linda Lutgens]

Greetings,

I am a University student who is a History major. I am planning to go into Greco-Roman history.

I have heard to following about Michael Grant, a famous author of aound 30 books on ancient Greece and Rome, he has also written about other topics.

There are the claims from a Amer. Hist. professor I have:

~Michael Grant is *not a trained historian*, he has a Ph.D. in engineering, a totally different subject!

~He has written more popular rather than scholarly books.

~He mostly uses secondary sources (not primary) for the information in his books.


I would prefere information from someone that has at least some scholarly experience reading/studying history, please.


God Bless,

Habsburg

 

[grasping the after wind]

Greetings,

I am a University student who is a History major. I am planning to go into Greco-Roman history.

I have heard to following about Michael Grant, a famous author of aound 30 books on ancient Greece and Rome, he has also written about other topics.

There are the claims from a Amer. Hist. professor I have:

~Michael Grant is *not a trained historian*, he has a Ph.D. in engineering, a totally different subject!

~He has written more popular rather than scholarly books.

~He mostly uses secondary sources (not primary) for the information in his books.


I would prefere information from someone that has at least some scholarly experience reading/studying history, please.


God Bless,

Habsburg

I do not know a thing Grant. He may not be worth reading but the criticisms of your professor seem rather small ones and not enough to just dismiss someone's work out of hand.

 

[Linda Lutgens]

Michael Grant is a common name. The Michael Grant you are asking about was a Don (professor) at Cambridge Univ in England. He was also Prof of Humanity (Latin) at Edinburgh Univ. He graduated from Cambridge Univ. His dissertation was "From Imperium to Auctoritas". In World War II he first served in the British Army in the War Office in London then was transferred to France and later to Turkey. A very full summary of his career (particularly as an academic) was published in his obituary published by the British newspaper "The Telegraph"on Oct 8 , 2004. "Professor Michael Grant who died Monday aged 89..." (He was born in 1914.) He was an outstanding scholar. I have read many of his books and own some of them (a favorite is "The Jews in the Roman World") and if you look at the bibliographies included in his books you will see that he used many primary sources including the Bible. He did believe that Jesus really lived otherwise he would not have written three books, Jesus, Saint Paul, and Saint Peter examining the historicity of Jesus "an historian looks at Jesus".
If you Google "Michael Grant engineer" you will find there are many engineers (still alive and practicing) with Ph.D.s.
My personal greatest interest is in the Ancient Roman world and that OF COURSE includes Jesus and Christianity.