THE WEST A New History in Fourteen Lives

Mac Sweeney, a professor of classical archaeology at the University of Vienna, takes an interesting contemporary approach to telling the story of what is commonly called western civilization. She uses the lives of 14 historical individuals, including Herodotus, Phillis Wheatley, Gladstone, and Edward Said--the well-known to the not-so-well-known--to tell listeners that everything they know about how this region developed is wrong. Khan, a British actress, gives a nice performance of this production. Her British accent always presents an air of authority to American listeners, and her inflection, pacing, and enunciation are all well done. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2023]