Travel by the Book

Newsweek, May, 2003 by Malcolm Beith

If Pausanias, the ancient Greek writer who by most accounts penned the first travel guidebook in A.D. 180, walked into the travel section of any large bookstore today, he would surely be shocked by the volumes beckoning from the shelves. "Caribbean Cruises and Ports of Call," "Around Paris With Kids," "Istanbul to Cairo on a Shoestring" --the only thing missing is the "Rough Guide to Travel in Outer Space." (That, too, will surely come one day.) It's unlikely Pausanias could have imagined the trend he would spawn with his "Guide to Greece," which explained the treasures of his homeland to foreigners (primarily Romans). But like so many of his compatriots' works, Pausanias' tome transformed civilization as we know it.

During the next two millenniums, the production and use...

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