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How Herodotus’ Ancient Wisdom Helps Make Sense Of Modern Times

Anhalt perceptively unpacks what Herodotus wants his readers to learn from history.

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While pursuing my PhD in English at the University of Michigan, I had the privilege of teaching in the honors college program during the 1990-1991 academic year. In addition to conducting students through the epics of Homer, the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, I was afforded the opportunity of introducing them to Thucydides’ historical account of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta.

As we wrestled with Thucydides’ incisive analysis of Athenian and Spartan power politics, the Gulf War was raging in Iraq and on the nightly news. I do not exaggerate when I say that for every political speech I heard on television, I could find a parallel in Thucydides. Whether it was “this is not a war about oil but a war about aggression,” or “we are trying to make the world safe for democracy,” whether terms like “defense of allies” or “clash of civilizations” or “preemptive strike” were being used in increasingly fungible ways, I could find insights in Thucydides’ 2500-year-old analysis that helped make sense of the jargon, the rhetoric, and the euphemisms.

Thucydides is arguably the father of political science, but he was preceded on the scene by the father of history, Herodotus. Though some have called him the father of lies because of the tall tales he tells in his Histories, Herodotus’ account of the war between Greece and Persia marks the first attempt in the West to analyze battles and cultures and political leaders in such a way as to construct a meaningful narrative that sheds light on the forces that propel history.

Though many have written on Herodotus, Emily Katz Anhalt, professor of classics at Sarah Lawrence College, empowers her readers to take the insights of the Histories and apply them to our own troubled times of political polarization, fake news, conspiracy theories, and media deception. In Ancient Wisdom for Polarized Times: Why Humanity Needs Herodotus, the Man Who Invented History, Anhalt uncovers the subtle patterns that Herodotus weaves through his history, patterns he likely meant as object lessons to his Athenian readers who were embarking on the disastrous Peloponnesian War, but which also have direct relevance today.

The Father of Objective Truth

In diagnosing current problems, Anhalt thankfully steers clear of naming politicians on either side of the aisle. Her analysis is non-partisan and delves to the root causes of our fractured discourse:

In today’s volatile political environment, reality is under siege. Influential voices at all extremes of the political kaleidoscope—some cynical opportunists, some blinded by ideological certainties—craft narratives and interpretations drawn not from fact but from fantasy. Purveyors of falsehoods prey on human gullibility. . . . Extremists gain powerful support from anyone uninterested in learning facts or unwilling to moderate an opinion based on evidence and logic. Some argue that we are each entitled to our own reality, or that objective facts are inherently prejudicial, or that factual evidence is fake news. Captivated by misleading and demonstrably false narratives, we forfeit our capacity for compassionate, humane interactions and we imperil human survival itself.

In today’s volatile political environment, reality is under siege. Influential voices at all extremes of the political kaleidoscope—some cynical opportunists, some blinded by ideological certainties—craft narratives and interpretations drawn not from fact but from fantasy. Purveyors of falsehoods prey on human gullibility. . . . Extremists gain powerful support from anyone uninterested in learning........

© The Federalist