The Ancient Guide to Modern Life

By Natalie Haynes

This revelatory book explores modern society while journeying back to the Greeks and Romans -- "will have readers grabbing for the classics" (Kirkus).

In this thoroughly engaging book, Natalie Haynes brings her scholarship and wit to the most fascinating true stories of the ancient world. The Ancient Guide to Modern Life not only reveals the origins of our culture in areas including philosophy, politics, language, and art, it also draws illuminating connections between antiquity and our present time, to demonstrate that the Greeks and Romans were not so different from ourselves: is Bart Simpson the successor to Aristophanes? Do the Beckhams have parallel lives with The Satiricon's Trimalchio?

Along the way Haynes debunks myths (gladiators didn't salute the emperor before their deaths, and the last words of Julius Caesar weren't "et tu, brute?") from Athens to Zeno's paradox, this irresistible guide shows how the history and wisdom of the ancient world can inform and enrich our lives today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Apr 24, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468300796

Natalie Haynes

Natalie Haynes is a writer and broadcaster. She is the author of The Amber Fury, The Children of Jocasta, A Thousand Ships, which was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2020 and Stone Blind. Her non-fiction book about women in Greek Myth, Pandora’s Jar, was a bestseller in both the UK and the US. She has written and performed eight series of her BBC Radio 4 show, Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics. In 2015 she was awarded the Classical Association Prize for her work in bringing Classics to a wider audience.

Reviews for The Ancient Guide to Modern Life

[theelliemo · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In this book, journalist and comedienne Natalie Haynes presents her arguments for why studying Classics is as relevant today as at any time in history, and they are compelling arguments indeed.

Although called an Ancient Guide to the Modern World, it is less a guide and more a comparison, that at times presents food for thought on how we do things today, and what we could learn from Ancient History about some of the things that may be considered wrong, illogical or just plain stupid in the world today; and on many of those occasions, Haynes hits the mark. I was interested to read her take on some popular modern TV shows as modern day Greek Tragedies.

Mostly, though, the book's strength is in Haynes' discussions of the Ancient world; the descriptions and analyses of Greek theatre and poetry, and of the work of philosophers, is hugely interesting and written in a thoroughly engaging manner, making this an ideal work to read as a first introduction to Ancient Greece and (to a lesser extent, Greece obviously being Haynes' main passion) Rome.

What lets this book down is Haynes' own opinions on some of the modern world, drawn, as they appear to be, from the popular press and based on "emotions" rather than fact. She expresses distaste for Bill Gates' fortune, conveniently forgetting the huge amount he has done for charity. Not to mention the thousands of people his organisation has provided employment for. I was disappointed to see a chapter of the book dedicated to a discrediting of people who have money, decrying them as talentless - an opinion that ignores all the entrepreneurs who have used their talent to create successful companies. In Haynes' view, they are only allowed a certain amount of success.

Despite this, I competely agree with the Epilogue of this book, in which Haynes puts a direct case or including Classics in all schools. She makes a good point when she says that often, the people who call the Classics elitist are the same people who have taken it out of the National Curriculum and made it into something only studied at private schools, creating that "elitism" in the first place.

[eyejaybee · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A few years ago, while I was working in the Department for Education, I was talking to a colleague about our respective experiences at school. To sustained hoots of derision from my colleague, I announced that I believed that the most valuable subject I had studied throughout my whole school career was Latin. I had not been aware that Michael Gove, then our Secretary of State and known (and frequently vilified by elements of the press and some representatives of the teaching profession) for his traditionalist view on the subject of education, was standing directly behind me. He immediately cut in to our conversation, apologised for having inadvertently and unavoidably eavesdropped, and said that he had been delighted with what he had heard. He then invited me to a roundtable meeting he was having with some leading stakeholders in the field of education later that week. The Secretary of State and I proved to be in a minority of two at that gathering, and his aspirations to revive the teaching of Classics in English schools never came to fruition.I don’t know where Natalie Haynes stands within the political spectrum, but she is an ardent, compelling and eloquent advocate from the Classics. She is, of course, now well known for Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics, her series of talks broadcast of BBC Radio 4 in which she combines observational stand-up comedy with an erudite assessment of classical literature. She has also written a couple of excellent novels that are heavily influenced by the Classics: The Amber Fury, which is reminiscent of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and The Children of Jocasta, a chilling and plausible reinterpretation of the story of Oedipus.The Ancient Guide to Modern Life is non-fiction, and offers an enthralling analysis of classical politics, philosophy and literature, in which she capably demonstrates that some of the strong literary themes really are immortal. She is particularly entertaining when discussing Juvenal and his satires – I think that, having established herself as a successful stand-up entertainer, she recognises him as a fellow acute observer of life, although she avoids his trenchant misanthropy. Clearly highly knowledgeable about the field, she writes with great clarity and an infectious enthusiasm. Like Natalie Haynes, I was fortunate enough to have some charismatic and engaging Classics teachers at school, and my greatest regret now is that I only studied Ancient Greek for one year. Given that I was to become a medievalist, that seems more short sighted than ever, and to have had the opportunity to study it, and then spurn it after having done the hard, introductory bit, now strikes me as unforgiveable foolish. Of course, I choose not to emphasise that aspect of my experience to Mr Gove.

[davidmullen_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

You know the names this is the detail of what was actually ment when it was originally said, quis custodiet ipsos custodes. A good read quite journalistic, the well known philosopher Fatso who may have got his name from a washing machine out of a catalogue, Plato and Ariston of Argos.I will have to get round to reading that copy of Tacitus I have had for years also get some Juvenal on my kindle and maybe read that copy of the Satyrycon

[suva_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you are reading, or thinking of reading, this book it is fair to assume you already have some interest in the ancient world and Haynes’ enthusiasm will be more than enough to make this work worth considering. It is a short read and I would have liked a bit more length, but for the casual classist there is more than enough to enjoy.The book itself (I was reading the hardcover) is a beautifully bound with high quality paper. I know this may sound trite but I think in an age of e-readers and downloadable texts this is something worth mentioning, especially since this book honours the past so passionately.