Chapter Overview

For young Indiana Jones, a journey with his father always leads to adventure. A trip through Russia takes Indy from the opulent palaces of the aristocracy to fetid peasant villages as a result of running away from home following an argument with his parents. Joining up with novelist Leo Tolstoy, Indy takes to the road, engaging in philosophical discussions and clashing with colorful Gypsies and ferocious Cossacks. Realizing that there’s no place like home, Indy rejoins his mom and dad and travels to an isolated Greek monastery perched high atop a mountain peak. The arduous journey, including a harrowing trip in a tiny cage up the side of thousand-foot cliff, brings father and son closer together.

People and Topics

Documentary Previews

Below you will find information about each documentary that supplements Travels with Father.

Seeking Truth: The Life of Leo Tolstoy

Born into the highest circles of Russian society, Leo Tolstoy wrestled with himself for the excesses of his aristocratic life. His conflicted journals became the basis for lifetime of writing which would produce the masterpieces War and Peace and Anna Karenina. The latter work exhausted him emotionally, causing him to discover new life with a pragmatic brand of Christianity, and live out his final days as a simple peasant. Produced and Written by Sharon Wood. Running Time: (0:31:15)

Unquiet Voices: Russian Writers and the State

Beginning in the 19th century, Russian writers created a national literature unparalleled in its moral and philosophical depth and intensity. They rebelled against conventions of what was expected in a novel and changed the course of world literature while facing unique political challenges. Learn more about the works of Aleksandr Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, Feodor Dostoyevsky, Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Produced and written by Sharon Wood. Running Time: (0:26:00)

Aristotle: Creating Foundations

No other philosopher has ranged so broadly over so many topics, nor made so many discoveries than Aristotle. In ancient Greece, Aristotle differed from his mentor Plato by not attributing answers to an unseen hereafter, but rather seeking to understand life by examining the here-and-now. Aristotle's analytical leanings and quest for knowledge led to the development of logic, and his constructions continue to shape our world today, from the syllogisms employed by lawyers to win cases to the rules that define the latest computer code. Produced and Written by Jennifer Petrucelli. Running Time: (0:21:37)

Ancient Questions: Philosophy and Our Search for Meaning

Since the dawn of time, human beings have looked at the world around them and each other and have asked questions about what they saw. Every human is a natural born philosopher, but many throughout history have risen to shape our understanding of what it is to be human. Produced by Mark Page and Jennifer Petrucelli. Written by Mark Page. Running Time: (0:23:52)

Indy Connections: Travels with Father

Below are current event articles that relate to events, topics, and people found in Travels with Father.

Behind Tomb Connected to Alexander the Great, Intrigue Worthy of "Game of Thrones"

Nationalgeographic.com

11/21/2014

Suspense is rising as archaeologists sift for clues to the identity of the person buried with pomp and circumstance in the mysterious Amphipolis tomb in what is now northern Greece. The research team thinks the tomb was built for someone very close to Alexander the Great—his mother, Olympias; one of his wives, Roxane; one of his favorite generals; or possibly his childhood friend and lover, Hephaestion.

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The Amazon Women: Is There Any Truth Behind the Myth?

Smithsonian.com

4/2/2014

I loved watching the “Wonder Woman” TV series when I was a girl. I never wanted to dress like her—the idea of wearing a gold lamé bustier and star-spangled blue underwear all day seemed problematic—but the Amazonian princess was strong and resourceful, with a rope trick for every problem. She seemed to be speaking directly to me, urging, “Go find your own inner Amazonian.” When I read the news that Wonder Woman was going to be resurrected for a blockbuster movie in 2016, Batman vs. Superman, it made me excited—and anxious. Would the producers give her a role as fierce as her origins—and maybe some shoulder straps—or would she just be cartoon eye candy?

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Why Are Jim Thorpe’s Olympic Records Still Not Recognized?

Smithsonian.com

7/3/2012

It’s been 100 years since Jim Thorpe dashed through the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, and we’re still chasing him. Greatest-evers are always hard to quantify, but Thorpe is especially so, a laconic, evasive passerby who defies Olympic idealizing. A breakfast of champions for Thorpe was no bowl of cereal. It was fried squirrel with creamed gravy after running all night in the woods at the heels of his dogs. Try catching up with that.

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The Little-Known History of How the Modern Olympics Got Their Start

Smithsonian.com

7/3/2012

What is known as Wenlock Edge, a great palisade, almost 1,000 feet high, running for 15 miles through the county of Shropshire, overlooks, near its eastern end, the tidy town of Much Wenlock. (Much Wenlock being so named, you see, to distinguish it from its even wee-er neighbor, Little Wenlock.) However, to this quaint backwater village near Wales came, in 1994, Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain, the grandiose president of the International Olympic Committee.

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Frank Deford on Bloggers, the Olympics and 51 years of Sportswriting

Smithsonian.com

6/27/2012

In 1961, Frank Deford graduated from Princeton and started writing for Sports Illustrated, a job he thought would be a brief entryway into the world of magazine journalism. More than 50 years later, he’s still at SI and still going strong. His remarkable stories—covering everything from outsized athletic figures to oddball coaches—have led to his being recognized as one of America’s finest sportswriters. Last month, he published his memoir Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter. He spoke with Smithsonian’s Joseph Stromberg about the luck involved in being a journalist, his thoughts on bloggers and his predictions for this summer’s Olympic Games in London.

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The Men Behind the First Olympic Team

6/26/2012

It was January 1896, and at the Boston Athletic Association’s annual indoor track meet at Mechanic’s Hall, Arthur Blake—a 23-year-old distance-running star for the BAA—had just won the hotly contested 1,000-yard race. Afterward, stockbroker Arthur Burnham, a prominent member of the well-heeled association, was congratulating him on his performance. Blake laughed and said in jest, “Oh, I’m too good for Boston. I ought to go over and run the Marathon, at Athens, in the Olympic Games.”

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Bettany Hughes on Socrates

Smithsonian.com

4/1/2011

Sure, Socrates was one of the founders of Western philosophy, but what was he really like? The 42-year-old British historian Bettany Hughes, whose previous biography dealt with Helen of Troy, brings him to life 25 centuries after his death in The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life. She spoke with the magazine's Megan Gambino.

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Ancient Greece Springs to Life

Smithsonian.com

9/22/2009

When the builders of the original Acropolis Museum first broke ground in Athens in 1865, archaeologists sifting through the rubble discovered a headless marble statue buried since the Persian Wars in the early fifth century B.C. Twenty-three years later, the head was identified and the world beheld one of the great treasures of antiquity, the Kritios Boy.

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Greece to ban gum and high heels from parts of Acropolis

www.monstersandcritics.com

5/14/2009

Athens - Greece is to ban chewing gum and high heels at parts of the Acropolis, saying they are inflicting irreparable damage on the ancient monument.

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Should Britain return the Elgin Marbles?

www.thefirstpost.co.uk

2/13/2009

Cultural treasures from ancient civilisations belong in the places they come from. Museums in Sweden, Germany, America and the Vatican have already acknowledged this and returned items taken from the Acropolis. The British museum should follow suit and put an end to more than two centuries of bad feeling in Greece.

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Suggested Lessons

• Sophocles, Socrates, and the Greek Polis
• The Olympic Medal: It's All Greek to Us!
• When the Games Were Held at Olympia
• Socrates and the Law: Argument in an Athenian Jail
• 300 Spartans: Xerxes' March to Greece
• The Alphabet is Historic
• Sophocles' Antigone: Ancient Greek Theatre, Live From Antiquity!