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The Way of Herodotus: Travels With the Man Who Invented History
During the classical age of Greece, Herodotus wrote the first history text. But what he created was much more than this. Informed by his own travels, his historical work digresses more than it chronicles, with tales of the lands and peoples he visited. As Michael Ondaatje once famously suggested, “What you find in him are the cul-de-sacs within the sweep of history.” In The Way of Herodotus, intrepid travel historian Justin Marozzi retraces the footsteps of Herodotus through the Mediterranean and Middle East, examining his 2,500-year-old observations about the cultures and places he visited, and finding echoes of his legacy reverberating to this day. It is a lively yet thought-provoking excursion into the world of Herodotus, with the man who invented history ever present, guiding the narrative with his discursive spirit.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published October 2, 2008
22 people are currently reading
495 people want to read
About the author
Justin Marozzi
9 books69 followers[Excerpt from http://www.justinmarozzi.com/about/]
Justin is a travel writer, historian, journalist and political risk and security consultant. He has travelled extensively in the Middle East and Muslim world and in recent years has worked in conflict and post-conflict environments such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Darfur. He graduated from Cambridge with a Starred Double First in History in 1993, before studying Broadcast Journalism at Cardiff University and winning a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania to read a Masters in International Relations. After working in the BBC World Service on ‘News Hour’ and BBC Westminster on ‘Today in Parliament’, he joined the Financial Times as a foreign correspondent in Manila, where he also wrote for The Economist. During his time in the Far East, he shared a Winnebago with Imelda Marcos, a helicopter with the Philippine president and his mistress, and a curry with Aung San Suu Kyi whilst under house arrest in Rangoon.
His first book, South from Barbary, was an account of a 1,200-mile expedition by camel along the slave routes of the Libyan Sahara, described by the desert explorer and SAS veteran Michael Asher as “the first significant journey across the Libyan interior for a generation”. His second, Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World, launched in Baghdad in 2004, was the best-selling biography of the world’s greatest Islamic conqueror and a Sunday Telegraph Book of the Year: “Outstanding… Justin Marozzi is the most brilliant of the new generation of travelwriter-historians.”
In 2006, he wrote Faces of Exploration, a collection of profiles of the world’s leading explorers. He has contributed to Meetings with Remarkable Muslims (an interview with the Afghan mujahid hero Ahmed Shah Massoud), The Seventy Greatest Journeys, and most recently The Art of War (essays on Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan and Tamerlane).
His latest book, published in October 2008, is The Man Who Invented History: Travels with Herodotus, based on extensive research in Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and Greece. Apart from a year working for a British security company in Iraq, an encounter with the Grand Mufti of Egypt and an investigation into outwardly religious girls performing oral sex in car-parks in Cairo, one of the many highlights of the Herodotean trail was a retsina-fuelled lunch with the nonagenarian war hero and writer Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor.
Justin is a regular contributor to a wide range of national and international publications, including the Financial Times, Spectator, Times, Sunday Telegraph, Guardian, Evening Standard, Standpoint and Prospect, where he writes on international affairs, the Muslim world and defence and security issues, and has broadcast for the BBC World Service and Radio Four.
Justin is a former member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, where he has also lectured, and an Honorary Travel Member of the Travellers Club.
Justin is a travel writer, historian, journalist and political risk and security consultant. He has travelled extensively in the Middle East and Muslim world and in recent years has worked in conflict and post-conflict environments such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Darfur. He graduated from Cambridge with a Starred Double First in History in 1993, before studying Broadcast Journalism at Cardiff University and winning a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania to read a Masters in International Relations. After working in the BBC World Service on ‘News Hour’ and BBC Westminster on ‘Today in Parliament’, he joined the Financial Times as a foreign correspondent in Manila, where he also wrote for The Economist. During his time in the Far East, he shared a Winnebago with Imelda Marcos, a helicopter with the Philippine president and his mistress, and a curry with Aung San Suu Kyi whilst under house arrest in Rangoon.
His first book, South from Barbary, was an account of a 1,200-mile expedition by camel along the slave routes of the Libyan Sahara, described by the desert explorer and SAS veteran Michael Asher as “the first significant journey across the Libyan interior for a generation”. His second, Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World, launched in Baghdad in 2004, was the best-selling biography of the world’s greatest Islamic conqueror and a Sunday Telegraph Book of the Year: “Outstanding… Justin Marozzi is the most brilliant of the new generation of travelwriter-historians.”
In 2006, he wrote Faces of Exploration, a collection of profiles of the world’s leading explorers. He has contributed to Meetings with Remarkable Muslims (an interview with the Afghan mujahid hero Ahmed Shah Massoud), The Seventy Greatest Journeys, and most recently The Art of War (essays on Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan and Tamerlane).
His latest book, published in October 2008, is The Man Who Invented History: Travels with Herodotus, based on extensive research in Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and Greece. Apart from a year working for a British security company in Iraq, an encounter with the Grand Mufti of Egypt and an investigation into outwardly religious girls performing oral sex in car-parks in Cairo, one of the many highlights of the Herodotean trail was a retsina-fuelled lunch with the nonagenarian war hero and writer Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor.
Justin is a regular contributor to a wide range of national and international publications, including the Financial Times, Spectator, Times, Sunday Telegraph, Guardian, Evening Standard, Standpoint and Prospect, where he writes on international affairs, the Muslim world and defence and security issues, and has broadcast for the BBC World Service and Radio Four.
Justin is a former member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, where he has also lectured, and an Honorary Travel Member of the Travellers Club.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
August 23, 2022
I finished reading this not long after Ryszard Kapuściński’s older book with a very similar title (see my review here). Both are classified as travel writing, both connect places with episodes and ideas from the ancient Greek writer and traveler, Herodotus’.
Both men are described as historians, journalists and travelers. Kapuściński spent his working life as a journalist, working mostly in Africa, and Marozzi’s website (http://www.justinmarozzi.com/about/) says he has travelled extensively in the Middle East and the Muslim world, sometimes as a working journalist, sometimes as a ‘communications expert’.
Kapuściński described his own work as "literary reportage", was described by Jonathan Miller as ‘a peculiar genius with no modern equivalent, except possibly Kafka’ and was discussed as a potential candidate for a Nobel Prize (https://www.theguardian.com/media/200... pressandpublishing.booksobituaries)
Marozzi has been hailed as ‘the most brilliant of the new generation of travel writers’ by the Sunday Telegraph. I often wonder about the label ‘travel writer/travel writing’, and feel that many books so classified are essentially works about places, histories and cultures that are different from the writer’s place of residence. Some write about journeys (Patrick Leigh Fermor, William Dalrymple, Paul Theroux) , some about places they have lived in for some time (Dalrymple on India, Peter Mayle) and others offer travel journals about holidays they’ve taken (Bill Bryson on Australia, for instance). Foreign correspondents write about countries to which they’ve been posted, often after they’ve moved on. All of these are labelled as travel writing and non-fiction, but it’s clear from just this tiny example of the range of travel writing that its scope and concerns vary, as does the quality of the writing.
Marozzi writes as a journalist with historical training and a long standing interest in the Middle East. His view of travel writing is that it ‘has a long and distinguished history of artifice and exaggeration. It often lets its literary ambition get the better of it, valuing a good story or an amusing quote over strict accuracy’. He lines up Herodotus in this tradition, and places himself there too, as historian, traveler, journalist and political analyst.
On balance, I’d rather put accuracy and the opportunity to learn about places and cultures that interest me ahead of an opportunity to laugh at someone else’s oddities.
Inspired by Herodotus, Marozzi travels to Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and Greece, following the master.
He writes lightly, often jauntily, switching back and forth between Herodotus’ observations and his own, never missing an opportunity to include accounts of modern sexual gossip that would have interested Herodotus, himself remarkably interested in salacious tales.
He worked in Baghdad for more than a year during the foreign occupation and war in Iraq. Here he uses his skills of political analysis as a foreign correspondent at something like full stretch as he observes the attitudes and behaviours of the occupying forces and the Iraqis he meets. His interest in Iraqi history was not shared by Americans or other Europeans, but Marozzi seeks out museums, archaeologists, historians and historical sites.
To visit Babylon was his dream. He travelled there with the occupying army, recording the soldiers’ conversations and interests. Sex, girls, bombs, deaths, girls.
He is deeply shocked by terrible damage done by the occupying forces to this internationally significant site. They had established a military camp on the site of ancient Babylon, with tanks, trucks, earth movers, armoured vehicles ‘digging, levelling, compacting and gravelling’, making a car park on top of the buried city. The Poles and the Americans blamed each other. Neither accepted responsibility for the desecration, and you get the very strong impression that the military were oblivious to its significance and not very concerned at all about what they had done, certainly not the soldiers on the ground, whose voices he reproduces with awful clarity.
In Thessaloniki he explores Greek-Turkish prejudices and hatreds – picking up the East-West divide again. There he discovers a fascinating project run by the Centre for Democracy and Reconciliation in South-East Europe, which is writing innovative histories of the region, ‘intended to combat Balkan nationalism in the region’s school history books. It offers an alternative version of the past, a more balanced portrayal, shorn of ethnocentric stereotypes and nationalist ideology, of the seven centuries from the emergence of the Ottoman Empire to the cataclysm of the Second World War’.
‘It is history on the front line. Herodotus unbound. Taken out of the classroom and thrown on to the political stage. A story of how history can foment discord and wars, sharpen divisions, demonise neighbours, how it can increase understanding and tolerance, help promote peace and reconciliation.’
It’s passionately dispassionate history, with tremendous care take to make sure the facts are right – the team can’t afford a single mistake or their work will fail. They give multiple perspectives and use original sources. They've received many compliments, and the series was being used in schools in many countries. The most vicious criticism came from within Greece, not Croatia, Serbia or Turkey.
I’d like to know what has happened to this project.
History is so often used as a cause of hatred and justification of war, it is heartening to see it being used to help shape tolerance.
I was most interested in the parts of this book which gave me new information, new insights about how societies work under pressure, what people think about the things that matter to them.
I’m not tempted to read anything else by him, whereas I am deeply interested in following Kapuściński
Overall rating 3.5, lowered to 3.
Both men are described as historians, journalists and travelers. Kapuściński spent his working life as a journalist, working mostly in Africa, and Marozzi’s website (http://www.justinmarozzi.com/about/) says he has travelled extensively in the Middle East and the Muslim world, sometimes as a working journalist, sometimes as a ‘communications expert’.
Kapuściński described his own work as "literary reportage", was described by Jonathan Miller as ‘a peculiar genius with no modern equivalent, except possibly Kafka’ and was discussed as a potential candidate for a Nobel Prize (https://www.theguardian.com/media/200... pressandpublishing.booksobituaries)
Marozzi has been hailed as ‘the most brilliant of the new generation of travel writers’ by the Sunday Telegraph. I often wonder about the label ‘travel writer/travel writing’, and feel that many books so classified are essentially works about places, histories and cultures that are different from the writer’s place of residence. Some write about journeys (Patrick Leigh Fermor, William Dalrymple, Paul Theroux) , some about places they have lived in for some time (Dalrymple on India, Peter Mayle) and others offer travel journals about holidays they’ve taken (Bill Bryson on Australia, for instance). Foreign correspondents write about countries to which they’ve been posted, often after they’ve moved on. All of these are labelled as travel writing and non-fiction, but it’s clear from just this tiny example of the range of travel writing that its scope and concerns vary, as does the quality of the writing.
Marozzi writes as a journalist with historical training and a long standing interest in the Middle East. His view of travel writing is that it ‘has a long and distinguished history of artifice and exaggeration. It often lets its literary ambition get the better of it, valuing a good story or an amusing quote over strict accuracy’. He lines up Herodotus in this tradition, and places himself there too, as historian, traveler, journalist and political analyst.
On balance, I’d rather put accuracy and the opportunity to learn about places and cultures that interest me ahead of an opportunity to laugh at someone else’s oddities.
Inspired by Herodotus, Marozzi travels to Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and Greece, following the master.
He writes lightly, often jauntily, switching back and forth between Herodotus’ observations and his own, never missing an opportunity to include accounts of modern sexual gossip that would have interested Herodotus, himself remarkably interested in salacious tales.
He worked in Baghdad for more than a year during the foreign occupation and war in Iraq. Here he uses his skills of political analysis as a foreign correspondent at something like full stretch as he observes the attitudes and behaviours of the occupying forces and the Iraqis he meets. His interest in Iraqi history was not shared by Americans or other Europeans, but Marozzi seeks out museums, archaeologists, historians and historical sites.
To visit Babylon was his dream. He travelled there with the occupying army, recording the soldiers’ conversations and interests. Sex, girls, bombs, deaths, girls.
He is deeply shocked by terrible damage done by the occupying forces to this internationally significant site. They had established a military camp on the site of ancient Babylon, with tanks, trucks, earth movers, armoured vehicles ‘digging, levelling, compacting and gravelling’, making a car park on top of the buried city. The Poles and the Americans blamed each other. Neither accepted responsibility for the desecration, and you get the very strong impression that the military were oblivious to its significance and not very concerned at all about what they had done, certainly not the soldiers on the ground, whose voices he reproduces with awful clarity.
In Thessaloniki he explores Greek-Turkish prejudices and hatreds – picking up the East-West divide again. There he discovers a fascinating project run by the Centre for Democracy and Reconciliation in South-East Europe, which is writing innovative histories of the region, ‘intended to combat Balkan nationalism in the region’s school history books. It offers an alternative version of the past, a more balanced portrayal, shorn of ethnocentric stereotypes and nationalist ideology, of the seven centuries from the emergence of the Ottoman Empire to the cataclysm of the Second World War’.
‘It is history on the front line. Herodotus unbound. Taken out of the classroom and thrown on to the political stage. A story of how history can foment discord and wars, sharpen divisions, demonise neighbours, how it can increase understanding and tolerance, help promote peace and reconciliation.’
It’s passionately dispassionate history, with tremendous care take to make sure the facts are right – the team can’t afford a single mistake or their work will fail. They give multiple perspectives and use original sources. They've received many compliments, and the series was being used in schools in many countries. The most vicious criticism came from within Greece, not Croatia, Serbia or Turkey.
I’d like to know what has happened to this project.
History is so often used as a cause of hatred and justification of war, it is heartening to see it being used to help shape tolerance.
I was most interested in the parts of this book which gave me new information, new insights about how societies work under pressure, what people think about the things that matter to them.
I’m not tempted to read anything else by him, whereas I am deeply interested in following Kapuściński
Overall rating 3.5, lowered to 3.
April 11, 2011
I enjoyed The Way of Herodotus, and thought it was a good introduction to Herodotus' Histories, since I have never read them in the entirety.
The same book was issued in Britain as The Man Who Invented History: Travels With Herodotus.
I liked [author Justin Marozzi]'s attempt to follow in Herodotus' philosophical footsteps, even when he did not follow exactly in his geographical footsteps. The only part I felt was a bit jarring was a chapter on Iraq that became an anti-American tirade. Given Herodotus' search for the reasons that nations go to war and his scrupulous fairness in treatment of the Greek's enemies, this one-side treatment of the Iraq war seemed out of place.
Marozzi's writing is engaging and he meets interesting people along the way, treating the reader to conversations that shed light on various people's views of Herodotus.
Finally I liked the book because it rankles me that academics seem to shun popularizers in their field. Herodotus, although arguably the FIRST historian, is largely ignored by historians of today because he dramatized. I'm sure that Marozzi suffers the same fate. He writes so that ordinary people might become engaged and interested in history. Therefore, he will be accused of superficiality.
See my complete review at http://atravelerslibrary.com/2011/03/...
The same book was issued in Britain as The Man Who Invented History: Travels With Herodotus.
I liked [author Justin Marozzi]'s attempt to follow in Herodotus' philosophical footsteps, even when he did not follow exactly in his geographical footsteps. The only part I felt was a bit jarring was a chapter on Iraq that became an anti-American tirade. Given Herodotus' search for the reasons that nations go to war and his scrupulous fairness in treatment of the Greek's enemies, this one-side treatment of the Iraq war seemed out of place.
Marozzi's writing is engaging and he meets interesting people along the way, treating the reader to conversations that shed light on various people's views of Herodotus.
Finally I liked the book because it rankles me that academics seem to shun popularizers in their field. Herodotus, although arguably the FIRST historian, is largely ignored by historians of today because he dramatized. I'm sure that Marozzi suffers the same fate. He writes so that ordinary people might become engaged and interested in history. Therefore, he will be accused of superficiality.
See my complete review at http://atravelerslibrary.com/2011/03/...
Read
April 15, 2021This book was an interesting approach to travel writing with some history, politics and literature woven in. It would have been an absolute winner for me, except for the author’s invariable habit of introducing female professionals by describing how attractive he finds them. One poor archaeologist who dedicates time and energy to showing him around the ruins of Babylon (not an easy job in 2004 Iraq) receives the compliment that, in the ancient world, she wouldn’t have had to wait too long to be sold as a prostitute. I can’t help but thinking that every woman who helped Marozzi write this book, including the wife he left behind in London, would have felt offended by the finished product.
August 18, 2011
Not a great travel book, which is too bad because I was excited to read this one. While it's ostensibly about the author retracing Herodotus' journeys and visiting the places that he did, there's actually very little travel writing. Way too much of the book is just a rehash of The Histories, and while interesting, it just feels like padding. The only really interesting section was when the author visited Patrick Leigh Fermor, but even that section involved recounting Leigh Fermor's own books. I can read other books on my own, thank you very much. What I'm looking for in travel writing is something new and the author's own experiences, not a repeat of what other people have done and said. A little background is nice for context, but there was way too much here.
I also disliked the extent to which the author constantly speculated about what Herodotus would have done, said, or thought about something that the author was seeing. While I understand that the author was trying to bring Herodotus to life, it was distracting and got old really fast.
All in all, this book was a good idea, but execution the execution was flawed. I had to really struggle to finish this one.
I also disliked the extent to which the author constantly speculated about what Herodotus would have done, said, or thought about something that the author was seeing. While I understand that the author was trying to bring Herodotus to life, it was distracting and got old really fast.
All in all, this book was a good idea, but execution the execution was flawed. I had to really struggle to finish this one.
July 15, 2021
Herodotos ('Herodotus' is a Latinization) is indeed an entertaining writer, one of the more accessible writers of Greek antiquity. Marozzi, in tracing his journeys, also copies his style, the Iraq account, for instance, being punctuated by a very lengthy excurses into the US invasion and occupation of the country. Frankly, I preferred Herodotos over this modern imitation. Still, it being years since I read the original, this was a pleasant, occasionally amusing, reminder.
There is a message running throughout this book, Herodotos being appropriated as an exemplar of the intelligent, liberal cosmopolitan, interested in and tolerant of the lifeways of other peoples. This, of course, is in stark contrast to the British author's portrayal of all-too-common American parochialism.
There is a message running throughout this book, Herodotos being appropriated as an exemplar of the intelligent, liberal cosmopolitan, interested in and tolerant of the lifeways of other peoples. This, of course, is in stark contrast to the British author's portrayal of all-too-common American parochialism.
August 30, 2009
I was expecting something different from this book - something more on the lines of Scott Huler's No Man's Lands, where he traced the locations in the Odyssey around the current-day Mediterranean. Marozzi uses Herodotus as a starting point for trips to places included in Herodotus' work, but there's less emphasis on Herodotus and more on the modern day. I learned too much about the author's view of Baghdad in 2004, in the middle of the Iraqi insurgency, than I did about what Herodotus wrote about Babylon, the ostensible reason for being including Iraq in the book.
November 3, 2017
When I was a freshman, we all had to sign up for a course designed just for freshman. So, being in my classics stage, I signed up for a class on Herodotus. I didn't have a clue. There were (I think) only six people in the class which is the smallest class I've ever been in including grad school. The professor was elderly and used to fall asleep sometimes when we sat in a circle. I still don't have a clue. But I remember how odd Herodotus seemed. This book seemed odder perhaps because his leaping about wasn't classical. (insert winky emoji here) I know Marozzi is trying to be Herodotean (?) but it doesn't work. His occasionally throwing out a curse word is just jarring because unexpected and gratuitous. My grandmother could curse worse so it's not that I have a delicate sensibility. I'm not being very clear but it is very much not because I'm Herodotean but because I still haven't a clue.
May 11, 2018
The very idea of walking the trail of Herodotus who has been considered, variously, both the Father of History and the Father of lies; is entertaining, fashionable, and exciting. Marozzi is able to exploit the benefits of that gist from the title onward. The book is equally exciting too. Herodotus who claims in his 'Historia' to have made a full circle from Aegean to Aegean through Turkey, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and of course both Persia and Greece is followed here, liberally though. In doing so, the author meets Underwater archaeologists, the Grand Mufti of Al Azhar (Sunni Islam's most prestigious university), and the legendary travel writer Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor. With him he carries Herodotus to discuss. And everywhere he speaks for Herodotus. But can he? Marozzi seemed to take his position as Herodotus' traveler, too far. He makes the bearded dead man the judge for almost everything from the Iraq War to misogyny in conservative Muslim societies. Although he does concede space to the skeptics gradually he seemed to regard Herodotus infallible. True, Herodotus was the Father of History. Yet again, the sobriquet was taken a bit too far and a little too literally. But if there is one thing Marozzi absolutely succeeds in doing, it is selling the man. So I will Herodotus.
July 2, 2018
A trip around the Med, visiting the places Herodotus went is a dream trip for me, hence my interest in this book.
Marozzi does just that, and throws in a visit with Patrick Leigh Fermor, dean of modern travel writing.
Marozzi does just that, and throws in a visit with Patrick Leigh Fermor, dean of modern travel writing.
December 28, 2010
Herodotus is a person I have heard of before (“The Father of History”), but have never actually read his work. After enjoying “The Way of Herodotus,” I feel as if I now know the man, Herodotus, and the highlights of his works. As author Justin Marozzi follows the path of Herodotus’ travels to Egypt, Greece, Turkey and other lands, the reader has a chance to come to know these places both as they were in Herodotus’ time and as they are now.
I generally don’t enjoy travel writing, but this was a most enjoyable read – either as history disguised as travel writing or travel writing disguised as history.
Thank-you Herodotus!
I generally don’t enjoy travel writing, but this was a most enjoyable read – either as history disguised as travel writing or travel writing disguised as history.
Thank-you Herodotus!
July 29, 2014
I picked up this book to read for research purposes as I had read Herodotus' Histories. This is a wonderful compendium to the Histories and pays due homage to the first travel and history writer.
I am fan of Herodotus and thought the treatment by his predecessors and scholars was unfair. Justin Marozzi's does well to dismiss the antagonist views with his unique perspective and in following in Herodotus' steps. He also highlights the uniqueness of Herodotus' storytelling and points out many factual elements that should not be dismissed, much like Homer's Iliad.
If you enjoy a lighthearted read with a well informed message and are a history enthusiast, then I highly recommend this book.
I am fan of Herodotus and thought the treatment by his predecessors and scholars was unfair. Justin Marozzi's does well to dismiss the antagonist views with his unique perspective and in following in Herodotus' steps. He also highlights the uniqueness of Herodotus' storytelling and points out many factual elements that should not be dismissed, much like Homer's Iliad.
If you enjoy a lighthearted read with a well informed message and are a history enthusiast, then I highly recommend this book.
November 17, 2009
As a modern travelogue and observation of the various cultures Marozzi encounters on his journey, this is a light, entertaining read. Not so entertaining is Marozzi's handling of Herodotus himself. Admittedly working with a daunting dearth of information, Marozzi settles for making far too much of Herodotus' seamier side, cackling on for pages over every innuendo and double entendre, chuckling over every Herodotean editorial.
Useful mainly as an introduction to the actual text of Herodotus, and thus most of this book is not worth much.
Useful mainly as an introduction to the actual text of Herodotus, and thus most of this book is not worth much.
September 6, 2016
I had a very hard time finishing this book. The topic is interesting but the author's writing is very dry with little to no humor. I did not care for the author's style of writing, but the locations were beautifully described and well researched.
September 11, 2022
"History is one of the fields where, if you teach it badly, you produce serious damage way ahead in the future."
It's a rare book-about-a-book that can make the reader frantically look for a copy of the original that inspired it, after only 40 pages!
Inspired by the first historian and author of the first prose work, British author Justin Marozzi set out to see for himself how much has changed in the last 2500 years since Herodotus penned THE HISTORIES. Beginning with Bodrum, Turkey (formerly Halicarnassus, the hometown of the first historian), Marozzi brings us with him to Iraq, dodging bullets and being under armed guard as he visits Babylon and Baghdad. Next he takes us up the Nile in Egypt as he visits Memphis, Thebes, and Cairo, marveling at pyramids and museums. Most of the book takes place in Greece, where he visits ancient temples and tunnels, and (the highlight of the book) has lunch with THE Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor himself!!!
Another highlight of the book for this teacher was Marozzi's interview with Nenad Sebek, former head of the Centre for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe (CDRSEE), whose NGO undertook a comparative study of how history was taught (Clio in the Balkans) and then came up with a revolutionary series of history textbooks for high school (secondary) students, called the JOINT HISTORY PROJECT (http://jointhistory.net/). To my surprise, the English textbooks are readily available for download at their website! When Marozzi published this book in 2008, only four volumes were available, but now there are 6.
A quick scan of the World War 2 textbook confirms Marozzi's joyful observation that this was Herodotus' legacy thrown in the classroom, this is "history as an active force, with a message and a moral voice."
The textbooks give primary sources and "provide multiple perspectives. We say, this is what people wrote at the time. You have the grey matter. Figure it out. We don't give conclusions... it's history as an ongoing dialogue, not a final verdict."
The CDRSEE got 60 historians from 11 countries to write the books, "presenting differences and conflicts openly instead of painting a false picture of harmony, stimulating critical thought by presenting different versions/interpretations of the same event, promoting an ability to evaluate human acts and make moral judgements."
A cursory look at the World War 2 volume of JOIN HISTORY shows that it is VERY engaging because it shows the human face of history. Filled with writings from ordinary people as well as leaders of the time, full of pictures that show the brutality of conflict... but also, it is short (144 pages). This is a history book meant to be savored, with a manageable length that a teacher and a class can cover fully. It's also full of colored highlights that promote discussion: "Is it necessary and correct to always equate “German” with “enemy”? Why did some Germans operate against other Germans?" or "Comment on the differences between the perspective of the soldiers and that conveyed by
the press. Why did the press distort reality? Was this distortion justified?"
Wonderful stuff! How I wish we had this equivalent in Philippine history textbooks! But that is fuel for a different (and very long and controversial) discussion...
Back to Marozzi's charming book! Another highlight was the exorcism he accidentally witnessed while innocently taking in the sights at Thessaloniki's Basilica of Aghios Dimitrios, only to be told that the victim was "a doctor who comes every Monday." O.M.G.
Marozzi delighted in less famous but equally amazing feats of ancient engineering, such as the incredible Tunnel of Eupalinos built around 600 B.C. by slaves who started on opposite sides of the mountain!?! What kind of math did they possess, to ensure they met in the middle??
I loved the interviews Marozzi conducted, ranging from authorities in the Orthodox Church (whom he admits, historically, has a strong claim to being "the origin of the Christian faith" ever since we Catholics mucked things up in the schism of 1054), to the Grand Mufti of Cairo's Al Azhar Mosque himself, who said: "In dialogue we search for common ground. Where there is knowledge, there is better understanding, and wherever we find ignorance, we find blind fanaticism."
What a wonderful reminder to go through life with open minds and hearts! I'm grateful for this thrilling introduction to Herodotus, and now I'm off to read the original! Wish me luck!
It's a rare book-about-a-book that can make the reader frantically look for a copy of the original that inspired it, after only 40 pages!
Inspired by the first historian and author of the first prose work, British author Justin Marozzi set out to see for himself how much has changed in the last 2500 years since Herodotus penned THE HISTORIES. Beginning with Bodrum, Turkey (formerly Halicarnassus, the hometown of the first historian), Marozzi brings us with him to Iraq, dodging bullets and being under armed guard as he visits Babylon and Baghdad. Next he takes us up the Nile in Egypt as he visits Memphis, Thebes, and Cairo, marveling at pyramids and museums. Most of the book takes place in Greece, where he visits ancient temples and tunnels, and (the highlight of the book) has lunch with THE Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor himself!!!
Another highlight of the book for this teacher was Marozzi's interview with Nenad Sebek, former head of the Centre for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe (CDRSEE), whose NGO undertook a comparative study of how history was taught (Clio in the Balkans) and then came up with a revolutionary series of history textbooks for high school (secondary) students, called the JOINT HISTORY PROJECT (http://jointhistory.net/). To my surprise, the English textbooks are readily available for download at their website! When Marozzi published this book in 2008, only four volumes were available, but now there are 6.
A quick scan of the World War 2 textbook confirms Marozzi's joyful observation that this was Herodotus' legacy thrown in the classroom, this is "history as an active force, with a message and a moral voice."
The textbooks give primary sources and "provide multiple perspectives. We say, this is what people wrote at the time. You have the grey matter. Figure it out. We don't give conclusions... it's history as an ongoing dialogue, not a final verdict."
The CDRSEE got 60 historians from 11 countries to write the books, "presenting differences and conflicts openly instead of painting a false picture of harmony, stimulating critical thought by presenting different versions/interpretations of the same event, promoting an ability to evaluate human acts and make moral judgements."
A cursory look at the World War 2 volume of JOIN HISTORY shows that it is VERY engaging because it shows the human face of history. Filled with writings from ordinary people as well as leaders of the time, full of pictures that show the brutality of conflict... but also, it is short (144 pages). This is a history book meant to be savored, with a manageable length that a teacher and a class can cover fully. It's also full of colored highlights that promote discussion: "Is it necessary and correct to always equate “German” with “enemy”? Why did some Germans operate against other Germans?" or "Comment on the differences between the perspective of the soldiers and that conveyed by
the press. Why did the press distort reality? Was this distortion justified?"
Wonderful stuff! How I wish we had this equivalent in Philippine history textbooks! But that is fuel for a different (and very long and controversial) discussion...
Back to Marozzi's charming book! Another highlight was the exorcism he accidentally witnessed while innocently taking in the sights at Thessaloniki's Basilica of Aghios Dimitrios, only to be told that the victim was "a doctor who comes every Monday." O.M.G.
Marozzi delighted in less famous but equally amazing feats of ancient engineering, such as the incredible Tunnel of Eupalinos built around 600 B.C. by slaves who started on opposite sides of the mountain!?! What kind of math did they possess, to ensure they met in the middle??
I loved the interviews Marozzi conducted, ranging from authorities in the Orthodox Church (whom he admits, historically, has a strong claim to being "the origin of the Christian faith" ever since we Catholics mucked things up in the schism of 1054), to the Grand Mufti of Cairo's Al Azhar Mosque himself, who said: "In dialogue we search for common ground. Where there is knowledge, there is better understanding, and wherever we find ignorance, we find blind fanaticism."
What a wonderful reminder to go through life with open minds and hearts! I'm grateful for this thrilling introduction to Herodotus, and now I'm off to read the original! Wish me luck!
July 23, 2019
Marozzi follows the paths of Herodotus, starting from his homeland, Bodrum - Turkey, all the way through Iraq, Egypt and, finally, Greece. Trying to collect as much information as possible for Herodotus' life and work, he writes down all the different but interesting opinions for the ancient historian from teachers, modern historians, archaelogists and people who have nothing to do with this subject - but those opinions still matter. What is everyone thinking about Herodotus nowdays? That is what he is trying to find out. Describing the places he visits and his adventures, he flashes back to the past through the eyes of the curious historian, which makes the narration way more interesting. Although, sometimes it felt a little repetitive and I was not able to continue reading for hours - but my curiosity for the next chapters kept me focused to the book.
October 17, 2023
Herodotus was a Greek man who lived during the Peloponnesian War and is known as "The Father of History". This book sees Justin Marozzi travel in Herodotus' footsteps through Turkey, Iraq (Babylon), Egypt and Greece as he tries to confirm some of Herodotus' information and get to know one the world's earliest surviving popular historian and travel writer. It's a fun book with a lot of interesting history and travel. Took me a while to read, but that's just me. Well worth it if you're a fan of herodotus or just like travel writing and/or history.
June 3, 2023
I have the impression that Marozzi didn't end up with enough material to write the book he initially intended. It's heavily padded with contemporary politics, extracts from other books and speculation about what Herodotus might have thought of various current events.
May 31, 2018
Very uneven... Marozzi (consciously?) emulated Herodotus with a discursive, digressive style.
June 25, 2014
I bought this book 4 years ago and took it with me on an extended trip to Turkey this spring. I enjoyed reading it on the road, although I was not near most of the places Marozzi traveled to with Herodotus.
He starts first in Cambridge, England with a discursive narrative about his own education and how he came to study history at all and came to Herodotus indirectly that way. Herodutus he writes. "The thing about Herodotus, and it was years before I discovered this, he doesn't really feature on historians' radar any more."
(This was in the early nineties.)
His travels eventually start in Bodrum, Turkey, the ancient Halicarnassus, which was Herodotus's home. His narrative goes back and forth between modern times and ancient ones. Bodrum is now a glitzy expensive resort town for Europeans and wealthy Turks, yachts in the harbor, villas covering the hills etc. Amid all that is a museum and conscientious Turkish civil servants from the Tourism Ministry trying to monitor archaeological digs and protect ancient artifacts. Bodrum is the site of one of the great underwater archaeologic sites - a Bronze Age shipwreck discovered in the 1980's and featured in a cover story on National Geographic in 1987.
Marozzi travels to many sites in the footsteps of Herodotus. He goes to Babylon, in southern Iraq in July (hot hot hot) 2004 and is accompanied on his visit by the US military. That in itself is interesting.
The section on Egypt I found interesting and learned about the Siwa oasis. The geography of Egypt is pretty straightforward and I could follow the narrative without a detailed map. But when Marozzi got to Greece I couldn't' follow detailed descriptions of Samos. There was an overall map of the eastern Mediterranean and I'm a pretty good geographer in any case, but reading on the road without access to my own collections of maps or even anything on line I got a bit frustrated at the end.
Marozzi decides that Herodotus was really a reporter, a world traveler who tried to make sense of the places he visited and the stories he was told.
I have the Landmark edition of Herodotus and I will read it over the next several months and remember not to be too critical of Herodotus for being a bit credulous and enjoy the stories.
He starts first in Cambridge, England with a discursive narrative about his own education and how he came to study history at all and came to Herodotus indirectly that way. Herodutus he writes. "The thing about Herodotus, and it was years before I discovered this, he doesn't really feature on historians' radar any more."
(This was in the early nineties.)
His travels eventually start in Bodrum, Turkey, the ancient Halicarnassus, which was Herodotus's home. His narrative goes back and forth between modern times and ancient ones. Bodrum is now a glitzy expensive resort town for Europeans and wealthy Turks, yachts in the harbor, villas covering the hills etc. Amid all that is a museum and conscientious Turkish civil servants from the Tourism Ministry trying to monitor archaeological digs and protect ancient artifacts. Bodrum is the site of one of the great underwater archaeologic sites - a Bronze Age shipwreck discovered in the 1980's and featured in a cover story on National Geographic in 1987.
Marozzi travels to many sites in the footsteps of Herodotus. He goes to Babylon, in southern Iraq in July (hot hot hot) 2004 and is accompanied on his visit by the US military. That in itself is interesting.
The section on Egypt I found interesting and learned about the Siwa oasis. The geography of Egypt is pretty straightforward and I could follow the narrative without a detailed map. But when Marozzi got to Greece I couldn't' follow detailed descriptions of Samos. There was an overall map of the eastern Mediterranean and I'm a pretty good geographer in any case, but reading on the road without access to my own collections of maps or even anything on line I got a bit frustrated at the end.
Marozzi decides that Herodotus was really a reporter, a world traveler who tried to make sense of the places he visited and the stories he was told.
I have the Landmark edition of Herodotus and I will read it over the next several months and remember not to be too critical of Herodotus for being a bit credulous and enjoy the stories.
March 14, 2011
An interesting tour around the eastern Mediterranean by an historian retracing the steps of Herodotus.
The author has a few annoying habits, including a rather old-fashioned attitude to women, who tend to be described and judged first and foremost in terms of their attractiveness regardless of their qualifications or what they have to say. He also indulges himself in both florid prose and pointless imaginings, trying to describe scenes of Herodotus' private life about which he can't possibly know anything. He's also keen to describe almost everything he sees as "very Herodotean", as if Herodotus created the world rather than simply writing about it.
On the other hand the material comparing countries and relationships now with how they were in Herodotus' day works very well, especially on Babylon/Iraq and Greco-Turkish tensions. And of course the main success of the book is that it makes me want to take my copy of the Histories off the shelf and actually get round to reading it (as well as seeking out something by Patrick Leigh Fermor, who Marozzi meets on his travels).
The author has a few annoying habits, including a rather old-fashioned attitude to women, who tend to be described and judged first and foremost in terms of their attractiveness regardless of their qualifications or what they have to say. He also indulges himself in both florid prose and pointless imaginings, trying to describe scenes of Herodotus' private life about which he can't possibly know anything. He's also keen to describe almost everything he sees as "very Herodotean", as if Herodotus created the world rather than simply writing about it.
On the other hand the material comparing countries and relationships now with how they were in Herodotus' day works very well, especially on Babylon/Iraq and Greco-Turkish tensions. And of course the main success of the book is that it makes me want to take my copy of the Histories off the shelf and actually get round to reading it (as well as seeking out something by Patrick Leigh Fermor, who Marozzi meets on his travels).
February 1, 2016
This book has very little to do with Herodotus and a lot about travel writing and whether history plus travel writing equals truth. Once I figured that out, the book was okay, although I found some of the author's rabbit trails more interesting than others. I particularly appreciated the introduction to Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor, who is described as a writer and and Second World War Hero. I am looking forward to reading his books. I enjoyed the section on Greece the most. perhaps because it was at the end and I knew I was nearly finished, or because I was travelling through Greece, when I read it, so I could identify with the section about protesters.
January 2, 2010
Just started this, I did a little Herodotus at school but he always struck me as being a bit, shall we say, fantastical, in his 'history', but to discover he was meticulous in his research and often right in his pronouncements on customs and origins of ancient cultures is very interesting. Whether this book will provide good context or skim a little over the surface remains to be seen, and Marozzi loves his purple prose a little too much for my liking, but its helping while away the time on my commute satisfactorily enough so far!
September 10, 2012
This travelogue introduces the reader to both history and the recording of travels. Although there has been much discussion as to the veracity of Herodotus' writings, if you allow yourself to be drawn into the adventure, you will be inspired to continue to search history for other observations that will capture your fancy. Somehow I feel that Robert Byron must have read Herodotus before writing "The Road to Oxiana." Be aware, this is not a translation of Herodotus, but a journey attempting to "walk in Herodotus' footsteps."
February 5, 2016
I must admit that I found this book hard going and left it for a while to read a Philippa Gregory for light relief. It did make Herodotus seem an interesting man worth knowing more about and some of the anecdotes, particularly the ones taken from Herodotus's 'Histories' made a good read. However this was off set by other parts that I found slow and rather tedious. Altogether the book was too disjointed and the theme of following Herodotus's travels failed to hold the various parts together for me. Perhaps if I had travelled myself to Egypt, Greece etc I would have found it of more interest.
March 25, 2009
A great book! Chatty, informative, fun, and rewarding just like Herodotus. A friend in Grad School had the classic question for his Oral Comps for the PhD. Which do you prefer, Herodotus or Thucydides as a historian? He choose Herodotus, even though his adviser did not like it. Tim still got his Phud. (Tim was also famous for not being able to go into Canada because of his pro IRA bumper stickers)
February 23, 2014
The author looks at some of the themes of Herodotus through the modern day context in Egypt, Greece and Turkey. He travels to some of the key locations mentioned in the Histories meeting various characters that have their own take on Herodotus. This is an accessible and in some parts humorous approach/introduction to the original text. Aspects of the book point to an author who was possibly going through a bit if a mid life crisis though.
August 24, 2010
The premise behind this book seemed pretty good at the time: writer tracing the steps of Herodotus. I thought it could not fail. However, the text is extremely dry, full of a lot of digressions (and I don't mean that in a good way), and overall, the book failed to hold my interest after two chapters or so. If you want the Herodotus experience, just go back and read Herodotus.
February 7, 2011
I got bored. I thought it would be more about history and less about modern travel -- my fault more than the author's. What is his fault, though, is how much this guy LOVES Herodotus. I came into the book liking him, too, and having had a rewarding experience reading The Histories, but Marozzi almost inspired a Herodotus backlash in me by so relentlessly propagandizing the man.
August 17, 2012
I have the feeling that both Herodotus and author Marozzi would make excellent traveling companions – knowledgeable, tolerant, and highly curious. I enjoyed retracing Herodotus’ journeys, learned quite a lot about past and present-day issues and cultures, and was sorry when this book came to an end!
September 7, 2012
A rousing tale of travelling alongside the man who invented history. Full its fair share of digressions and debauchery, Marozzi manages to emulate Herodotus in every way possible. You feel the emotional highs and lows of his journey through the Mediterranean; the spirit of Herodotus watches over you as you read.
If you weren't on Team Herodotus, you will be after reading this book.
If you weren't on Team Herodotus, you will be after reading this book.
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