{
  "id": 4106464,
  "title": "If you are a history buff, this book is unsettling and that’s the point",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/29/if-you-are-a-history-buff-this-book-is-unsettling-and-thats-the-point",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-08-29T04:26:41.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Indian Express",
    "slug": "the-indian-express",
    "url": "https://indianexpress.com/article/books-and-literature/talking-classics-the-shock-of-the-old-bread-mary-beard-10854212/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "When Mary Beard was five, a curator at the British Museum introduced her to a 4,000-year-old piece of Egyptian bread. The sight of such an ordinary object, made by a common individual in a past age far removed from her own, sparked a sense of wonder in the young girl. Beard describes this feeling as \"thauma,\" a term the ancient Greeks used to refer to wonder or awe. However, this feeling of wonder carries a significant weight, as it prompts one to ponder the complexities of the past and the challenges in describing it. Beard's book, Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old, delves into the thrill of rediscovering that the ancient world is far from dead or static. It is still capable of surprising us. Unlike many others, Beard does not view antiquity as a collection of great texts, statues, or heroic figures. Instead, she finds fascination in the everyday objects and fragments that offer glimpses into how people truly lived. Each piece of bread, for instance, carries the physical traces of an individual life stretching back four millennia. Based on lectures given at the Universities of Chicago and Edinburgh, the book is a defense of the classics. But Beard is not driven by a desire to venerate. She does not argue that the ancient Greeks and Romans possessed timeless wisdom. Nor does she present the classical world as the sole foundation of Western civilization. Instead, she is more interested in the unexpected revelations that arise when we closely examine the past. This tension between the familiar and the alien is what Beard refers to as the \"shock of the old.\" This concept is especially relevant today, as the classics are often invoked in arguments about cultural identity. Beard is keenly aware of the misuse of antiquity by fascists, nationalists, and those who promote a narrow definition of \"Western civilization.\" However, she also refuses to dismiss the classical inheritance altogether, as it has been unfairly targeted. The past is not a possession for any single group; it is meant to be examined, questioned, and contested by all. And this is precisely why Beard addresses not just the Western world, but every part of the globe where the invocation of cultural unity today often obscures social complexities. Beard suggests that the ancient world does not offer easy answers about liberty or democracy. Instead, it reveals the fascinating interplay between ideals and their violation. While she acknowledges the brutal aspects of classical societies, such as slavery, misogyny, and violence, she does not claim that recognizing these realities renders the study of classics irrelevant. Beard's feminist perspective and skepticism have subtly transformed the study of the classical tradition, which has traditionally been portrayed as an inheritance handed down from eminent men to subsequent generations of eminent men. By widening the frame, Beard asks who gets remembered, who interprets the past, and how seemingly timeless classics have been shaped by changing societies over time. \"Ancient history,\" she contends, \"shines a troubling spotlight onto the here and now too, asking us to face what the judgment of the future will hold for us.\" Beard's ultimate goal is not merely to cultivate a love for the classics, but to allow them to unsettle us. This sense of intellectual curiosity, more than any assertion of \"timeless values,\" may be the most compelling reason to engage with the past and continue exploring it anew.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [
    "Beard finds wonder in everyday ancient objects, sparking intellectual curiosity",
    "Book defends classics without claiming timeless wisdom or sole foundation of Western civilization",
    "\"Shock of the old\" concept highlights relevance of classics in today's cultural identity debates"
  ],
  "editors_take": "Mary Beard's book challenges traditional views of the classics by highlighting the everyday and the unsettling, prompting a reevaluation of how the past informs the present and who gets to interpret it.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}