... the attempt to humanize ancient warfare is a worthy endeavor and Garland is to be commended for managing this effort well, painting a vivid and universalizing picture of the human causes and consequences of war with which we can, sadly, too easily relate.
Bryn Mawr Classical Review
... no book has been devoted primarily to the civilian ... Read moreaspect of the war-in particular, to the advance evacuation and unexamined emotional suffering of thousands upon thousands of refugees. Put like that, the scene is immediately relevant today, and Garland's narrative well gauges the kind of hysterical anxiety and ultimate misery that surely accompanied the mass displacement and bleak destruction to which the refugees twice returned... Essential.
Choice
Garland's account of the burning and rebuilding of Athens is another of his finely nuanced reimaginations of the bare documentary and material record.
Lection
Garland hat insgesamt eine Studie vorgelegt, die vor allem durch die Wahl ihrer Perspektive uberzeugt.
Ancient History Bulletin
Athens Burning is the fullest account of the Persian sack of Athens in September 480 and in June 479 bce available in English... What stands out in this book is Garland's creative imagination. He works harder than most to imagine what it must have been like to make drastic decisions, to imagine the political pressures the leaders felt and the psychological effects of breaking up families and abandoning one's city to the enemy. The book is immersive in this way and transforms a dramatic episode of ancient history into a human-interest story.
Kevin Solez, MacEwan University
Canadian Journal of History
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