Books That Inspire 2001
 
The Persian Wars
Herodotus


Herodotus suited my temperament when I first read him at age twelve and still does. His story of how the Greeks against all odds preserved themselves against two despots cannot fail to inspire. But there is more. Herodotus was interested in “stuff” for its own sake: how mummies were preserved, how some nations (curiously, he thought) relieve themselves in private, and how Gyges was blackmailed into murdering his king. Herodotus opens your eyes to the wonder and complexity of the human comedy, then and now.
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Madison Davis
Professor Journalism & Mass