Amazon Women (only vaguely book-related, but quite intriguing)

I'm kind of a sucker for the myth of the Amazon women. Although I'm certainly not a feminist in the modern sense, part of me likes the idea that women warriors existed, if only to think that not every ancient culture subjugated and abused women. Anyway, here's a link about a PBS program that I was watching last night. Apparently Jeannine Davis-Kimball believes she found the modern descendants of the Amazons in eastern Mongolia. (She found a tribe in which one of the children was blonde--apparently a complete throwback to a much earlier period, because everyone else in the tribe looked exactly like what you would expect a Mongolian to look like.) Davis-Kimball actually matched this child's DNA, and that of her mother, to a female skeleton--believed to be that of a female warrior--that she found in Russia. How's that for unexpected?) It sounds a little far-fetched, but it's quite an interesting theory. If the show pops up on your local network, I'd recommend it--with a grain of salt, of course.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_amazon/interview.html

The Landmark Thucydides, edited by Robert B. Strassler (introduction by Victor Davis Hanson)

This really is not a review of Thucydides so much as a review of this particular version of his work. The Landmark Thucydides is actually Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War but with a great deal of extra information. This particular version is the one I recommend in my tutoring curriculum, and we are currently reading it, so a review seemed timely.

As mentioned in the review about Herodotus, Thucydides is a great historian. He attempts to be as accurate as possible, which makes him a favorite with modern historians. While we never quite know if we can believe Herodotus, we are pretty sure that we can believe Thucydides. That being said, he can also be a little long-winded, and he does us the favor of including every possible detail. If you want to know what happened during the Peloponnesian War, consult Thucydides. He has extensive descriptions of troop movements, and he never misses the opportunity to transcribe a public debate for his readers. From his writing alone, I can be confident that I would have been absent for many public debates. They are long and often dull, with each speaker having the equivalent of several pages worth of arguments to make, but they are the record of history; and historians pursuing the study of the ancients will find this very helpful indeed.

As for this version, I have to recommend it very highly for anyone reading Thucydides. It's quite bulky (752 pages) and not the cheapest version available, but it provides an enormous amount of context for readers (like me...) who might otherwise be lost in all of the details. One of the greatest features of this book is the addition of excellent maps sprinkled throughout. The editor goes to considerable lengths to show readers exactly what--and where--Thucydides was talking about. Considering the infinitesimal number of tiny islands in the Aegean, this is enormously helpful. Additionally, the editor includes historical information in the appendices about Greek life and culture, explaining the often confusing contrasts between Athenians and Spartans. The appendices also contain further information about battles and armor (for those who are interested), dialects, religious festivals, currency, and calendars. I didn't actually take the time to read through all of this, but I occasionally consulted the information during my reading of the History.

For those who are going to be reading Thucydides, this is the version to use. It's a little more involved, but it's well worth the effort for achieving a better understanding of the Peloponnesian War.

(For the sticklers, yes, I know the chariot depicted above is Etruscan, but it effectively conveys the overall theme of war; so I went with it.)

The Histories, by Herodotus

As Herodotus is a part of my tutoring curriculum, I recently read it (and for the first time, I have to admit). Generally, I'm a big fan of history, but I was a little hesitant about this one. Last year, I read Thucydides--to be reviewed later--and really struggled to get through it. It wasn't boring so much as just too much. I'm not a big fan of military history, and Thucydides apparently was. I learned enough about troop movements to last me a lifetime. Suffice it to say, I was worried that Herodotus would offer the same frustration.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Herodotus is nothing like Thucydides. While Thucydides was a bona fide historian, Herodotus was more of a storyteller. He filled his Histories with myriad tales about the ancient world, many of them more fiction than fact. For this reason, Herodotus is today considered an unreliable historian, and the information he relates is not regarded as holding much historical value. This does not mean that he has a book full of fairy tales, but that it is often difficult to tell the what is true and what is myth. For instance, he goes into a detailed description about the Trojan Wars and how he (personally, I should add) believes that Paris and Helen escaped from Troy before the Greeks ever arrived and that they ended up in Egypt, where Menelaus eventually picked up his wife and took her back to Sparta. Now, from everything I've read, we can accept that there are elements of truth in the mythology of the Trojan Wars, and that Troy might have existed, but that the stories as we know them today are certainly not history. After all, Helen was supposedly a daughter of Zeus, and in establishing historical fact that's a pretty big hurdle to clear. But Herodotus--probably like many people of his day--believed the tradition to be true and thus wrote about it as fact. Consequently, we have to take Herodotus with a heavy dose of salt, keeping in mind that much of what he says is quite inaccurate.

With that in mind, Herodotus does have some benefit for the reader of ancient histories. His descriptions of cultures and worldviews are in many ways very accurate and quite fascinating. For the modern reader, it can be an interesting look into how people have and--and probably more importantly--have not changed. For all the differences between the ancient and the modern world, man really hasn't changed all that much. Truly, "the heart of man is desperately wicked" and has always been. For those who think our world is bad today, consider the case of the king who was so angry with one of his subjects that he took the man's son, killed and cooked him, and then served him up to the unsuspecting father for dinner. Uhhh...that pretty much falls into the category of "desperately wicked." My favorite of Herodotus' stories, though, has to be that of Xerxes, who, angry with the Hellespont (a strait in the Balkans) after a storm destroyed the bridges over it, ordered it to receive 300 lashes with whips. Way to go, Xerxes--that ought to make the Hellespont sorry!

Anyway...Herodotus is something of a time commitment at close to 700 pages, but it is a very interesting read and remains an important part of ancient literature. Anyone studying the literature of this period should read it, and anyone hoping to expand his knowledge of the ancients will find this book helpful. I suggest also reading Thucydides to balance it out, although I suspect that readers will enjoy Herodotus a little more. Happy reading!

Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson

One would think, given that I'm living in a hotel with limited outside activities, that I would have plenty of time to read and to blog about what I've read. I guess it comes down to a distinction between the amount of available time and the actual distribution of that time. Needless to say, I have time; also needless to say, I haven't been using it as wisely as I could.

Anyway, I'm finally getting around to blogging about Kidnapped. I've read this book several times, taught it, and even written a study guide about it. So, it will be apparent from the start that I'm partial to it. I think Kidnapped is one of those classic stories that all students should have the opportunity to read and that all adults should read if they haven't already done so. It's an all-around excellent adventure with great writing, well-developed characters, and a sufficiently intricate plot. It's not exactly the most unpredictable book you can read, but it keeps you interested from beginning to end. I've also found that it's a book for both boys and girls; even though the main characters are all male--and there are painfully few female characters for our politically correct world--it has enough human quality to appeal to male and female alike.

For a quick summary of the plot. David Balfour, on the verge of manhood, has just lost his father. He learns, much to his surprise, that he has an uncle and that he also has a share in his family's wealthy estate. David departs from the small village where he has lived his entire life to seek out this uncle and claim his rightful share. What he finds is a selfish, parsimonious old man who has no use for a nephew and wants to get rid of him as soon as possible. David also learns that he might have more rights in the family estate than he had previously thought, making his uncle even more jealous and tight-fisted. To go much further would give some of the surprises away (well...not really surprises, but there's no reason to outline the entire story here). David finds himself kidnapped, shipwrecked, and then accused of murder. Along the way, he meets one of the most colorful characters that Robert Louis Stevenson ever created--Alan Breck Stewart, the feisty Highlander who is David's complete opposite but who also grows to be David's closest friend. Together, they travel through the forbidding landscape of the Scottish Highlands, facing a variety of challenges as they go.

One of the qualities that I like the most about Kidnapped is the idea that it is possible to get along with and respect someone who is very different from yourself. Of course, this is a popular idea in today's world and will win Stevenson some modern kudos. But most of the time, this theme is today interpreted in racial terms. In Kidnapped, you see people who are of the same race and nationality, who live only a few hundred miles apart, who even share many of the same basic traditions, but who are world's apart in every other way--the Scottish Lowlanders and Highlanders. Stevenson presents to the reader a way of life that probably was little seen and understood in Victorian England and Scotland, and he presents it in a surprisingly positive way. Kidnapped is set during the days of the fierce Jacobite rebellions in Scotland. The Highland chiefs had rejected the German Hanoverians who ruled England, choosing instead to support the descendants of England's ousted king, James II. This spurned line had produced James Stewart (called "the Old Pretender") and the more famous Bonnie Prince Charlie. In order to force the Highlanders into submission the new kings of England had passed strong laws that virtually denied the Highland people any remnant of their traditional way of life: they were not allowed to speak their native Gaelic language, wear their family tartans, or carry any kind of weapons. The story of Kidnapped takes place some years after the disastrous battle of Culloden Field, at which the Highlanders lost all chances to regain their freedoms, and is set during a time when the Highland people are struggling for basic survival. But survive they do, in their own fiercely determined way. To the rest of England and Scotland, the Highlanders are recalcitrant and don't deserve any sympathy. To the England of Stevenson's day, ruled by a queen who was a descendant of the very monarchs that destroyed the clan chiefs, there would still be little sympathy or respect for these people. But Stevenson shows, through his careful portrayal of the people, that there is more to the Highlands than barbarism and rebellion. He does not condone the Highland politics of the day, nor does he seem to support their traditionally Catholic beliefs; but he proves that people can exist and be respected apart from their political and religious beliefs. And this might be an even more valuable lesson for the modern world than just appreciating people's differences.

Now for the cons. One of the most challenging elements of Kidnapped is the dialogue. Much of it is written in a heavy Scots English, filled with words that are completely unfamiliar to the reader of Standard English. And by this, I don't mean that it contains challenging vocabulary; I mean there are words that the average English speaker would have never had the opportunity to hear. Words such as "risp" or "whaup." And you can believe me when I say they don't mean what you think they will mean. For this reason, I suggest reading a version of the book that contains detailed vocabulary footnotes (most of the versions seem to) or locating a Scots-English dictionary (a little trickier to find). Many of the words can be found online, although it can be tough to track them down. A helpful website is http://www.scots-online.org/, which has an online dictionary for those difficult words.

Overall review: great book, fun read, good for all ages. I highly recommend it. Now, should anyone need a study guide, I happen to have one...