These handsomely designed books mix appealing text, a wealth of full-color illustrations, and attractive sidebar material in eye-catching magazine-style layouts. Books are written on a popular young-adult level, and can be used as supplements to social studies texts in middle school and high school courses. Many historians mark the birth of modern culture as arriving with the Golden Age of Greek civilization -- roughly, the 4th and 5th centuries B.C. Readers discover the vivid contrasts between Athens, the cradle of humanism, and Sparta, a neighboring military citadel. Here too are illustrations and descriptions of the architecture of Greek cities, and much more.