Customer Reviews

Heroes: Saviors, Traitors, and Supermen: A History of Hero Worship

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This is an erudite and quite fun history of several men who I didn't know that much about before, such as Garibaldi and Wallenstein. The others, especially Alcibiades and Cato, and Drake, I was already fairly familiar with from reading some ancient and other history.

The careers and personalities of of this diverse group of men are examined in the light of the question, "What makes men truly great?" This is a more difficult question to answer than one might think. The author points out that Alcibiades, despite being a traitor to Athens, still was not despised and was feared and more respected by the ancient Greeks, since they believed that a truly great man was above and could transcend the more humdrum moral exigencies of the common people. And although we regard Odysseus as a strong, brave, and courageous ancient Greek who survived many amazing calamities and adventures, Odysseus was regarded by the ancient Greeks more as a corruptor of innocence than a true hero in that sense.

If you're a reader of Greek and Roman history much of this section will already be familiar to you, but I'm not and I especially enjoyed the discussions of life in Sparta. I knew they lived especially ascetically and their marriage customs were strange, but that was it. Apparently, they lived on a unbiquitous black broth, made love in the dark (the woman often never knowing what her husband looked like), and had other odd customs. For example, boys were deliberately fed less then needed to sustain them so they would be forced to steal food to survive. But they were only whipped if they were caught. And girls were made to sing nude at noon in the marketplace, as this was thought to promote modesty. The author states that the girls were also fed one seventh the amount of food of the boys, but this is clearly not possible since no one could possibly survive that way.

Despite how we might view such customs today, the ancient Spartans were looked upon by the other Greeks as exemplars of a noble, virile, and ascetic life that harkened back to an earlier and simpler era, and the Spartans were respected for that as well as their military skill and discipline. The early Renaissance writers such as Petronius and Dante similarly regarded Virgil's poetry as representing a noble and pastoralic way of life that they nostalgically over-romantized themselves.

The other chapters on Drake, Garibaldi, and Wallenstein were also enjoyable, and I can recommend the book as a fine introduction to not only the lives of these men, but you will learn quite a bit of the history of each period as well. For example, I didn't know that much about the time of the 30 Years War, except that when it ended with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, that was when Switzerland first gained its independence, and France got Alsace and Holland. But this was the era when Wallenstein was rampaging around the countryside terrifying both friend and foe.

As the editorial review states, " To exalt scoundrels like Drake or Wallenstein is to challenge our modern dictum that all are created equal; recognizing this, Hughes-Hallett appends a cautionary coda about the antidemocratic legacy of these Nietzschean "supermen." She notes that a hero needn't be virtuous; he need only "inspire confidence and... appear, not good necessarily, but great." Compellingly portraying her heroes, Hughes-Hallett is equally brilliant in evoking both the allure and the danger of hero worship."

I completely agree with this assessment and would point out that one need only look to the last century with leaders such as Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, and so on, to show that 2000 years after the ancient Greeks, people are still predisposed to follow great leaders down the primrose path to their ultimate destruction if they are not very careful. Thus, the book serves as a timely warning on the dangers of heroic scoundrels and charismatic demogogues, and the dangers of raw, unchecked, political power.

Finally, the book is brilliantly written and Hughes-Hallett can turn a phrase with the best of them, somestimes dashing off comments with a truly ironic and even mordant wit that are a delight to read (as well as being grateful one's own life didn't become the object of her scrutiny, since few of us are saints :-)). So as I said, all in all a very erudite, informative, and enjoyable book on history.

I honestly loved this book. I first came across it randomly in a bookstore and it caught my eye. Little did I know how difficult it would be to come across it again....anyway.

The book gives you these vignettes of the lives of certain heroes representative of their respective eras. Starting off with Achilles and Alcibiades all the way through to the 19th century and Garibaldi of Italy.

These snapshots of giant men and their times are extremely informative and eye-opening. To see that parallel drawn between them, and the cohesive narrative make for a really great and (at least for me) fun read. It adds a lot to the debate about whether the man makes the times or whether the times make the man. I highly recommend. :)