Travels with Herodotus in Read a book from each country

Nov 22, 2010 Jimmy rated it liked it

Shelves: poland, non-fiction, male, year-2000s

Sometimes here on Goodreads I'll read a review that combines an actual review of the book and a personal narrative (where the reviewer might tell you a story of how they came upon the book, or some experience they had a while ago that has parallels to the book they are reviewing). The strategy has its advantages, and it usually at least makes for an entertaining read.

Reading Travels with Herodotus was like reading such a book review about The Histories by Herodotus. But much longer.

Ryszard Kapus Sometimes here on Goodreads I'll read a review that combines an actual review of the book and a personal narrative (where the reviewer might tell you a story of how they came upon the book, or some experience they had a while ago that has parallels to the book they are reviewing). The strategy has its advantages, and it usually at least makes for an entertaining read.

Reading Travels with Herodotus was like reading such a book review about The Histories by Herodotus. But much longer.

Ryszard Kapuscinski alternates between telling his story as an upstart young journalist and re-telling stories from The Histories. Sometimes he even dedicates entire chapters to summarizing wars and other happenings, often directly quoting Herodotus himself for pages on end. Because I have not read Herodotus, I found these chapters interesting. But if I had read him, these chapters would have little meaning. Why not just read the original? I did feel a little guilty when reading this, as if I were reading the cliff notes version of this classic text.

The parts about his own experiences were also a little disappointing in that they often didn't add up to much. They were entertaining, but didn't seem that significant. I understand that he is trying to show us what he learned about journalism through Herodotus, but most of these lessons are so basic and simple (check your sources, try to go behind the story, remain objective, etc.) that it is anti-climactic. Also, he often makes the same points over and over again.

Even worse, I think a lot of what he praises in Herodotus might just be what he wants to see in Herodotus. It's pretty hard to get a clear picture of how someone reported on events thousands of years ago, so I don't blame him for using his imagination in this respect. However, I don't always buy it.

For instance, he spends many chapters talking about how Herodotus would check his sources, or he would explore the questions himself through travel, or that he wouldn't always believe what his sources said. This is based solely on the fact that Herodotus used phrases such as "This is what I heard…" and "[nobody] I have spoken to claimed to have a definite answer…" and "there is no reliable information to be had about it" (p. 104) etc.

But after stressing this point many times, Kapuscinski goes on to talk about a village that according to Herodotus resorted to strangling almost all their own women in order to win a strategic war. Kapuscinski questions this sentence for two or three pages, asking questions like 'this must've been a huge massacre, where did they store the bodies? what did the women think when they found out the men decided to do this? was there a rebellion? were there men who didn't want to carry out with the plan?' (not verbatim, I couldn't find the exact quote). But then he says that all Herodotus recorded was "And then the women were strangled" or something short like that. All those details fall to the side. Why didn't Herodotus tell us more? Why weren't these questions asked in the original Histories? What does it say about Herodotus that he just skipped over these points? Kapuscinski remains silent on this point.

Another example:

"[Herodotus] calculates that this army--infantry, cavalry, and naval crews--numbered some five million men. He exaggerates, of course." (p. 198)

So here we have Herodotus obviously exaggerating, and Kapuscinski is just mentioning it offhand instead of saying "OK let's re-examine what I said earlier about Herodotus's flawless methods of journalism". No, he just mentions it as if it's totally OK, a minor quibble. Of course, I don't blame Herodotus: he was one of our first recorders of history, so kudos to him for at least trying. But I found it kind of disingenuous for Kapuscinski to hold Hero(dotus) up as this gold standard, and then ignore everything that doesn't fit into his theory.

Overall, this book was an entertaining and easy read, and it exposed me to Herodotus whom I've never read before, so that's definitely a plus. Even taking into account the book's many flaws, it's still generally well written, and I'm willing to venture out and read another one of his books. ...more

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May 21, 2008 lisa_emily rated it really liked it

Shelves: history

I've heard that this is not Kapuscinski's strongest book, but this is the first I've read of this author and I really enjoyed it. What impressed me the most was how Kapuscinski captured the strangeness and marvel of stepping outside his country's boundaries and entering different worlds. His reenactement of his first trip out of Poland to Italy and India excited me as if, I , too, were traveling for the first time to such a extraordinary place. ...more

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Jul 01, 2012 Duc Hoang rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: vietnamese-translation, reviewed, favorites, travel

Cảm ơn Kapuscinski, ông đã giúp tôi tìm lại những câu hỏi của chính mình.

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Mar 30, 2008 Anna rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reportage

Herodotus's Histories were the book Ryszard Kapuściński got from his first boss. It travelled with him around the world. This helped Kapuściński concentrate on stories told by ordinary people - a different kind of history than that made by politicians and armies. Great. ...more

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