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Travel as a Political Act summary

Name: Travel as a Political Act
Rating: 4.1 (38 reviews)
Author: Rick Steves

Rick Steves

Change the world one trip at a time

4.1 (38 ratings)

17 mins

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Culture

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Travel as a Political Act
Summary of 6 key ideas

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What’s in it for me? Top tips to get the most out of your travels.

Psychologists and neuroscientists have made an interesting observation: if you make the effort to smile when you’re feeling down, you’ll actually feel happier! Taking this idea further, the old adage that, when in Rome, you should do as the Romans do, takes on a whole new meaning. Travel is not so much about fitting in, though that’s hardly a bad idea, but rather experiencing life as the locals do and trying to better understand what makes them tick.

That, travel writer and historian Rick Steves reckons, is the secret to getting the most out of traveling. Sure, poolside drinks and lazy afternoons dozing in the sun are great for recharging your batteries, but they’re nowhere near as memorable as seeing the world through unfamiliar eyes.

So how do you do that?

Well, what’s key is your attitude. In these blinks, you’ll find out how to keep an open mind and push past prejudices and fears to really get to the heart of things. Along the way, you’ll learn many interesting things about Steves’ experiences traveling through the Balkans, Central America and the Middle East, giving you an insight into the kinds of things you can start looking out for on your own journeys.

So read on to find out:

what medieval jesters can teach us about contemporary travel;
why the bombast of politicians rarely reflects the views of ordinary folk; and
how getting to grips with a country’s history can illuminate its present.

Playing the role of a modern jester can transform your travel experiences.

Sometimes there’s nothing quite like an all-inclusive vacation package. If it’s some serious rest and relaxation you’re after, poolside drinks and pre-arranged entertainment will probably be just the ticket. But that’s not the only way to travel. In fact, if you really want to learn something about the country you’re visiting, you’ll need to leave your hotel behind and start exploring.

That means it’s time to rethink your role as a traveler. How? Well, you can take a cue from medieval jesters. Today, we often think of jesters as little more than fools or pranksters, but in the Middle Ages, they fulfilled an important political role. Because jesters had one foot in the royal court and one in society at large, they were uniquely placed to tell the king what ordinary people were thinking, who they were mocking and what they were angry about. Whether common folk were joking about his stutter or grumbling because he’d raised taxes on mead, the king usually got the lowdown on what his subjects were up to from his jester.

And you can think of yourself as a kind of jester when you travel. Your role is to go out into the world and collect valuable insights which will help inform your own perspectives as well as those of people back home. Maybe you visit Iran and realize that some people accept the rulings of religious authorities because they’re scared their children will become Westernized materialists. Or maybe you travel through El Salvador and discover that not everyone dreams of owning a Porsche and a fancy villa.

To gather those kinds of insights, you have to make a conscious choice to travel with an open mind. Remember, the point of this kind of travel is to broaden your horizons. That means your own ingrained ideas and preconceptions will be challenged. Go with the flow, and you’ll soon realize just how deeply enriching traveling can be. Whether it’s trying an unfamiliar dish, chatting with locals or doing something you usually wouldn’t, it’s all about learning to see the world as others do.

The best way to really engage with a new place is to leave your preconceptions at home.

We all know that, in reality, there’s more to French cuisine than snails and that Russians aren’t all hopelessly addicted to vodka, but that doesn’t mean these kinds of clichés aren’t still incredibly powerful. That’s an issue when it comes to open-minded travel; if you really want to get to know new places and peoples, it’s time to ditch your preconceptions!

Most assumptions aren’t quite as crude as the ones mentioned, of course. But the more subtle preconceptions are much more effective in shaping our views of places we’ve never visited. Take it from the author. For years, he assumed Europeans were just a bunch of arrogant snobs in love with their cheeses and wines. But he eventually realized that this idea was preventing him from seeing what was actually the case. When he pushed past his preconceptions and traveled around Europe, he understood that people were simply proud of their traditions. They didn’t want to show off but rather share the things they themselves valued.

The Balkan Peninsula is full of fascinating insights into the history of the former Yugoslavia.

The Balkan Peninsula is a vast stretch of land in southeastern Europe which includes Greece in the south, Hungary in the north and former Yugoslavian countries such as Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina at its heart. Yugoslavia, a country which existed between 1918 and 1991, was home to many groups which were all part of the same ethnic group: the South Slavs.

That shared ancestry is reflected in the fact that the former Yugoslavian countries all speak similar languages: Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian. During the years in which their speakers belonged to the same country, these three languages were united under the common language of Serbo-Croatian. When Yugoslavia broke up in the late 1980s and early 1990s, they began to drift apart and take on separate identities. More than language, a factor dividing South Slavs is religion: Orthodox Christians are called Serbs; Catholics Croats; and Muslims Bosniaks.

El Salvador is a fascinating country scarred by its colonial past and a brutal civil war.

Did you know that the name of the small Central American republic El Salvador means “the savior” in Spanish? It’s a name that captures a key part of the country’s history. A reference to Jesus Christ, it was chosen by the Christian Spaniards who conquered the area and displaced its indigenous people in 1524.

The legacy of colonialism is one of the first things you encounter when you travel to El Salvador. Even today, it’s easy to tell who benefited and who lost out during the era of direct Spanish rule and subsequent independence. The big losers were indigenous folk, many of whom were killed by the Spanish while razing their villages. Survivors were enslaved and branded with hot irons like cattle. The colonists prevented these people from growing their own food and forced them to cultivate profitable cash crops like indigo and coffee.

Europeans have a different attitude toward drug policies than Americans do.

What’s the best way to fight drug abuse? Well, it depends on who you ask. While governments in Europe and the US agree that addiction to both hard drugs like heroin and soft drugs like alcohol and marijuana is a social problem, they have very different approaches to trying to solve it. In the US, the hardline policy of the “war on drugs” has been the go-to approach since the 1970s. In Europe, things are a bit more nuanced.

Some countries like Iceland and Greece, for example, are pretty rigorous when it comes to enforcing laws against marijuana users. Others employ a much more laid-back approach.

Visiting Iran is a great way to learn about its Islamic Revolution and the beliefs of ordinary people.

Steves first traveled to Iran in 1978. When he returned in 2008, he knew some basic facts about the country. He was aware, for example, that it had 70 million inhabitants and was one of the most powerful states in the Middle East. What he wasn’t prepared for was how much the country had changed.

That’s hardly surprising. One year after his first visit, Iran was rocked by the Islamic Revolution. In 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s spiritual leader, returned from exile and overthrew the US-backed monarchy of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, commonly known simply as “the Shah.” When Steves returned, he found evidence of this radical shift everywhere. Many streets were no longer named “Shah” but “Khomeini,” while banknotes now featured the latter’s rather than the former’s portrait.

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What is Travel as a Political Act about?

Travel as a Political Act (2009, updated in 2018) is a passionate plea for an enlightened approach to travel; an approach that does away with preconceptions and lets us engage with other countries and cultures. Packed full of actionable advice and top tips to help you travel intelligently, these blinks are also studded with fascinating examples of the kinds of things you might learn along the way.

Best quote from Travel as a Political Act

Traveling with no understanding of the local history is like going to a 3-D movie and deciding not to bother with the glasses.

—Rick Steves

Who should read Travel as a Political Act?

Globetrotters and aspiring explorers
Sociologists
Students of political science

About the Author

Rick Steves is an American historian and travel writer. He has spent much of his life traveling overseas and writing books about his experiences. Steves is also a teacher on the topic of travel, advising people on both the logistics of travel and how to get the most out of their trips.

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