The Histories (Oxford World's Classics) unknown Edition

Herodotus is quite the ancient historian; he's full of himself and funny too.

Very readable translation.

This is a ~2500 year old book on history that was criticized right after it came out. It's often viewed as the less serious, less academic, inferior work when compared to Thucydides - the author who provided the template for future historians. For that reason, a modern reader may hesitate to look at it. They should not. It is a wonderful read - the stories are great, the sociological descriptions are wonderful, the deductive analysis (when placed into context) is remarkable. The book's engagement with real world events must be considered, and there are excellent footnotes to discuss it. Ultimately, this is the best and often only source for many of his subjects. As such it is well worth reading and engaging with. Afterwards you will probably spot many, many references to this book through the centuries. The Histories is critical to our modern day understanding of the classical world. I do think that reading it with a map of the ancient world would be helpful if you're not familiar with the landscape, but other than that, just go along with it.

This is not an easy read, but if you have the patience to make it through the introduction and initial chapters, you will find a fascinating tale. Herodotus is a gifted story teller. Even in his digressions- and there are many throughout the book- the descriptions of the lands, the people, the battles, customs, offer rich detail and insight to what it was like to be living 2500 years ago during the Greek and Persian wars. Oftentimes reading this book, it reminded me of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, and made me wonder if George Lucas and J.R.R. Tolkien were inspired by Herodotus' The Histories." In so many ways we have changed, but in also so many ways, we still share much in common with our ancient ancestors.

A grand overarching story embellished with a thousand of pithy anecdotes of varying relevance. It is possible to make big fuss about whether the anecdotes are literally true (in the Schweik case, there were many people wasting the time of their lives really trying to map the anecdotes to real individuals and events) but in the end, it does not matter that much. And as a matter of fact, whatever in this book is possible to confirm one way or another was actually confirmed. You owe it to yourself to read it, it must rate among the 20 most important and at the same time most entertaining books ever written.The translation is lucid, and there are many helpful remarks.

Any history lover with any kind of book collection is required to have a copy of this book. It's a great copy at a very affordable price.

Faithful to the original text, simple text layout and extensive notes made by the translator.Can't go wrong with Oxford!

I am only through book one but I love it. The father of history, the original historian and yet so much is lost since him. Herodotus brings a humorous light hearted touch to history that so many don't. And his topics are so ranging in lesson.I wonder if it is in his book one the first time it was taught to not mess with those who prepare your food.History is collected by historians for all of humanity, yet it seems that it is only the historians who take the time to read the resulting histories.I highly encourage anyone abd everyone to read the histories of Herodotus. You'll thank me later.