The American professional writer Jacob Abbott is the author of the book “Alexander the Great”. The book summarizes the fleeting but intense life of Alexander III of Macedon. Abbott informs the reader about Alexander’s childhood, youth, fearless campaigns and battles as the king of Macedon, and the circumstances of his death. The author’s main purpose is to show how Alexander’s character played a central role in his success. In his book, Abbott characterizes Alexander as enthusiastic, intelligent, brave, thoughtful, far-seeing in respect to the consequences of his acts, and faithful to his friends. The author theorizes that these characteristics were the secret to Alexander’s victories and greatness. Abbott successfully supported his theory …show more content…
Abbott added, that these actions showed Alexander’s loyalty to his friends and great intelligence when dealing with people, and thanks to this displayed of his generous character all the symptoms of disaffection towards Alexander disappeared. In another occasion, after a battle in Asia Minor against the Persians, Alexander went and visited each of his wounded soldiers and listened to how they were wounded. Abbott argued that this did not only inspired his army but made every one of his soldiers to remain loyal to him even on the most dangerous battles and adventures, which is in part why Alexander was never defeated. To support his theory even further, Abbott dedicated a chapter to the deterioration of Alexander’s character and how this terminated with the love his people, soldiers and officers had for him. Ultimately, the author also blamed Alexander’s loss of qualities for his eventual death which he described to had happen shamefully after a debauch. This book is a very good source of information for the general public and scholars that are interested in the life of Alexander the Great and his most important moments. Students of history can benefit from reading this book because it offers a good insight on the