- Economics
- Political Philosophy
- Education
- Answering Challenges to Advanced Economies
- Reforming Education
- Understanding the Effects of Technology on Economics and Governance
Ego, pride, wrath, fear, gods, superheroes, mortals, and lots of killing. Welcome to Homer's Iliad, which reads at times like a script for a Tarantino film or the latest installment of the Avengers franchise. In the first episode of the EconTalk Book Club on the Iliad, Ido Hevroni of Shalem College speaks with EconTalk’s Russ Roberts about the surprising relevance of a 2800 year old epic poem. Hevroni also provides useful background for first-time readers and an idea of what it's like to read the Iliad with combat veterans.
Listen to the episode here.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dr. Ido Hevroni is chair of Lobel Core Curriculum and a senior lecturer at Shalem College. Previously the college’s founding educational director, he is a scholar of rabbinic literature and teaches Talmud and Midrash, classical literature, and theories of depth psychology. He is among Israel’s leading experts on liberal arts education and frequently grants master classes on pedagogy. Hevroni formerly served as academic director of the Shalem IDF Educational Leadership Program and as an associate dean at the Mandel School for Educational Leadership, and currently serves as a volunteer lecturer for various IDF units and pre-military preparatory schools. His research and writing connect the practical and realistic aspects of metalcraft (i.e., blacksmithing and goldsmithing) with the conceptual depths of Talmudic and classical literature.
RELATED SOURCES
- The Iliad by Homer (translated by Robert Fagles) on Amazon.com
- Kindle edition: The Iliad by Homer (translated by Robert Fagles) on Amazon.com
- Dr. Ido Hevroni's Website
- "I Taught My Students the ‘Iliad.’ Then They Went to War." by Ido Hevroni in The Free Press. June 19, 2025.
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy on Amazon.com
- The Naked and the Dead: 50th Anniversary Edition by Norman Mailer on Amazon.com
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller on Amazon.com
- Reading, Writing, and Fighting (with Mark Helprin)
- Something From Nothing by Phoebe Gilman on Amazon.com
- Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character by Jonathan Shay on Amazon.com
