Review by Choice Review
Alphabetically arranged, this biographical dictionary provides informative overviews of the careers of 50 of the most notable classical scholars of the last 200 years, all now deceased. The editors, American classicists who also contribute to the volume, have given their 43 authors great latitude and, excluding bibliographies, these lively and readable accounts range in length from 3 to 24 pages. The relative weight devoted to biography and scholarship varies, but all the authors are generally successful in identifying the major contributions of their subjects and putting them in the context of their lives and times. Germans predominate with 25 biographies, and if there is a leitmotif throughout most of this work, it the crucial importance of German scholarship to modern classical studies. Indeed, the majority of the non-Germans chronicled were deeply imbued with the ideals of Germanic Altertumswissenschaft. As such the book is a worthy companion to and in some measure a continuation of Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff's masterly History of Classical Scholarship (1982), though it is no substitute for a still wanting complete and continuous account of the last 100 years of classical studies. The bibliographies appended to each biography are very helpful, though on occasion clearly incomplete. A key to periodical abbreviations would have been welcome as well as an index of scholars to complement the useful subject index. There are some glaring typos. Highly recommended for graduate students and faculty. -J. H. Kaimowitz, Trinity College (CT)
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
