This week sees the return of our Short Histories series, with introductions to Ancient Greece and the New Testament.

Introductions with an edge from the world’s experts – covering events and movements from the ancient and classical world, late antiquity, medieval, modern, and 20th century – our Short Histories move beyond the bland, neutral ‘introduction’ that is too often served.

In A Short History of Ancient Greece, P.J. Rhodes explores the archaic (8th–early 5th centuries BCE), classical (5th and 4th centuries BCE) and Hellenistic (late 4th–mid-2nd centuries BCE) periods up to the beginning of Roman hegemony. Exploring topics such as the epic struggle with Persia; the bitter rivalry of Athens and Sparta; slaves and ethnicity; religion and philosophy; and literature and the visual arts, this is, in equal measure, the most authoritative and accessible introduction yet on Ancient Greece.

Halvor Moxnes’ A Short History of the New Testament shows how the writings of this vibrant text came into being from oral transmission and then became the pillar of a great world religion. In discussing its textual origins, as well as its later reception, Moxnes shows above all how the New Testament has been employed both as a tool for liberation and as a means of power and control.

Previous Short Histories include introductions to English Renaissance Drama, the American Revolutionary War, the Byzantine Empire and the Spanish Civil War.

A complete list of releases, new and forthcoming can be found at short-histories.com. ■