Customer Reviews

The Histories (Oxford World's Classics)

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This Oxford Classics edition has much to recommend it. First, it is translated into smooth modern English, which, while not conveying every subtlety of Greek, will nontheless help the present-day reader through this long work. Second, the price is under $10. Third, there is an excellent map collection at the back showing the ancient world as we see it and as Herodotus saw it. The notes, bibliography, appendices, indexes, timeline and glossary all make this a great resource for the student or casual reader. There is enough mention of content in all the other reviews. I just wanted to point out the advantages of this edition.

This new translation by Robin Waterfield is smooth, colloquial, and easily readable, comparable to Robert Fagles' outstanding new translations of Homer's Illiad and Odessey. Carolyn Dewald has provided 150 pages of detailed and highly useful notes, all unobtrusively placed at the end of the book. Ten maps show virtually every geographical detail needed to follow Herodotus's tour around the known world, and a detailed index makes finding people--though not keywords--easy. All in all, an enjoyable read.

Herodotus's Histories are a treasure trove of wisdom, anecdotes and sheer joy. In the words of Robert D. Kaplan, "Thucydides may have been the more trustworthy historian, but Herodotus would have been more fun to share a wineskin with--and is a better guide to the god-filled geopolitics of the current era." (Kaplan's remarkable article on Herodotus, titled "A Historian for our Time", is available at [...]

I fully agree with other reviewers about the beauty of this translation, which results in a fluent and pleasant text. I am also overwhelmed at the abundance of notes and commentaries about perhaps most paragraphs in the book.

The problem is, while the translation increases our reading pleasure, the organization of this edition does not help the reader: the use of endnotes rather than footnotes means that readers have to keep moving to and fro between the text and the end of the book. Worse still, there is no footnote numbering, so readers must turn at virtually every paragraph to the end of the book, so as not to miss possible clarification. Eventually, I decided to check before reading each of the nine chapters ("Books") and mark the endnoted paragraphs myself.

Perhaps Oxford's intention was, as another reviewer put it, to ensure that notes were "unobtrusive" and the reader would have the clean text before his eyes. I beg to differ: few modern readers could do without the additional explanations provided in the notes. And, if they felt they could, or so wished, they would have a wealth of translations to choose from, much poorer in notes than this one.

I think no other edition of the "Histories" has so many maps. These are necessary and helpful. But they could have been clearer. In some of them, it is hard to tell land from sea, for example.

I do look forward to a "Landmark Herodotus" similar to the magnificent "Landmark Thucydides", with notes AND maps exactly where they are needed, so the reader never has to leave the page he is reading. This may sound shallow, but it greatly facilitates concentration. And this, after all, is supposed to be one of the main benefits of a fluent and pleasant text in the first place.

I don't think any other work I've read has allowed me to live into how it was to live in a time so remote from our own. This really strikes me as an astounding achievement. I don't have a very good oversight over what other resources are available to historians about the daily goings on in in Greece and the Middle East at that period, but I find myself thinking as I read, "What if he had just decided not to write it?"

I had a very hard time with the place names in the first version I borrowed from the library, so I'm very glad for the maps in this edition. Also now some years later, I've forgotten all but the biggest names (but I still remember Cyrus!), and there are a daunting number of names in the book. But for all that, it's sort of an easy read, because it's anecdotal. I remember what happened, and more or less what order it happened in. I remember the major nations and what they were like -- the Persians, the Scythians, the Lacedaemons,...) More importantly, I remember the tenor of the book and of the times. I have a sense for the role that the gods and oracles played, the number of wars an average person experienced in their lifetime, the consequences of war, the relationship between men and women, the sort of thing which motivated nations to do what they did. (I detect no bigotry or chauvenism in Herodotus.) And it's just replete with very good 'histories' of all sorts, which will stay with me forever -- the circumnavigation of Africa, the Babylonian queen who diverted the river in a huge engineering project to protect the city, the Scythians rites, his impressions of the amazing Egyptian labyrinth, the fabulous hearsay about what the Northern climates were like.

And I'm left with a different perspective, I think, than I was before. I don't think, for example, that I could ever be a full blooded pacifist after reading Herodotus. (It's very hard to picture how a pacifist would have survived very long in that world, it seems to me.) I think I also have a better sense for the human psychological need for religious devotion. And I'm convinced that religion is an excuse for war rather than the real motivating factor, because although they had plenty of wars, he doesn't seem to suggest that anyone believed in a right or wrong religion.

Anyway, it was way more fun than I expected.

What amazed me about this book was Herodotus'curiosity and lack of ethnocentrisism. Herdotus wasn't simply interested in chronicling major events, but delving deeper to understand why the events occured in the first place. Furthermore, he does something that many scholars and policy makers today should do more of; that is, he trys to understand other cultures in order to make more sence of their actions. In this endeavor, he should not only be called the "Father of History", but also the Father of Anthropology. But, perhaps he understood way back then that history and anthropology, as well as geography are all complimentary.

While Herodotus - being a Greek himself - undoubtedly sees the Greeks as heroes in their struggle against the Persian invasion, he shows them to be extremely jealous, greedy, arrogant and even treacherous. This is something that many of the ancient world - including the Greek world - would rarely do to their own kind. Therefore, Herodotus is also one of the first examples of someone critquing their own culture.

Herodotus makes it clear that the causes of conflict were complex - often stemming from selfishness, such as the Greek Histiaeus wanting to start an Ionian revolt just so he could leave the Persian court - and the "heroes" were no knights in shining armour. The best example is Themistocles, who was instrumental in saving Athens due to his insistence in forcing a sea battle in the Salamis straights. Rather than dying with the reputation as a heroe, he ended his life in excile collaborating with the Persians against Greece. It would be as if after leading the Americans to victory in the American Revelution and being President, George Washington was exciled to England and became and an advisor to the British king on how to retake America.

While it may not have been his intention, one irony that becomes apparent regarding the Spartans and Athenians is that democratic Athens has an imperialist impulse from the outset of their victory at Salamis, while the oligarchic - some may even say proto-facist - state of Sparta is very reluctant to take any offensive measures and are rather content to stay in their peninsula. They were complaining about simply sending troops into central Greece to stop the Persians.

Unfortunately, many "progressive" historians cut out the inconvenient truths of this history and make it into more of a black and white affair. For me, it was Herodotus' inquisitive mind, search for the truth - by revealing contridictory accounts - and, relative to ancient authors, very unbiased account that makes this work a must read for anyone interested in western civilization, ancient history, and world history in general.

Growing up in Turkey, every student had to study world history including the events covered in this book. However, our history lessons consisted of memorizing dates and names of what was in the state approved text books. The contrast of that approach, to learning history by reading the original works is huge. What a joy it is to read Herodotus' book! The book is about the Persian Empire which was huge extending from India and Central Asia to the Danube in Europe. I loved the diversions from the main events and all the stories and myths. Besides the well known Persian/Greek wars there were so many other lesser known but just as exciting events. One of them was Darius's expedition into Southern Russia to attack the nomadic Scythians. I didn't realize that Darius attacked them from the West crossing the Danube. The building of the bridge over Danube and the hardships in crossing rivers in old times was eye opening. I also loved the maps and read all the 200 pages! of historical notes and a section on ancient weights, units, and money.

If you enjoyed this book you might also enjoy the "Peloponnesian War" by Donald Kagan. Although written by a contemporary historian, it reads as if you are watching the events in person. Fantastic reading for history lovers.

I am reading this book and I LOVE it. One important reason is that the author, Herodotus, is really attractive to me. He is the type of person I want to make friend with: Kind, humorous, fair, honest, and most important of all, he possessed the holy curiosity about the wrold around him. I guess it would be a unforgetable experience to attend his lecture.

Some of his arguments might not be valid in our eyes,but I beilieve that he had tried his best and he generally made the most reasonable conclusions based on the information available at that time.

I really enjoy the chatting style of this book. I love the Thucydides too, and it is really interesting experience to read Histories and Peloponnesian War at the same time. After several pages of stuffy war narrative by Thucydides, I can't wait to turn to the relaxing chat with Herodotus. And after being entertained by too many stories in Histories, I'd like to switch back to the challenging Peloponnesian War. If I can choose, I would like to have Herodotus as my grandpa and Thucydides as my father; they are among those finest minds in the human history.

Herodotus's The Histories is an immense trove of knowledge. He is often given the handle Father of History as his pioneering work help set the stage for the field of historians. The Histories tell the story of the Greek and Persian Wars. This is the first and only surviving history by a ancient writer about the Greco-Persian Wars. We wouldn't have details about the Spartan last stand at Thermopylai or the Greek victories at Marathon, Salamis, and Plataia without Herodotus. But, the scope of The Histories does not stop there. It gives the story of many peoples and events that connect the dots to give a complete background of the conflict. The Histories covers the following:

*Croesus the last king of Lydia and their defeat to the Persians including the reasons for the conflict
*History of the Medes and how they came under Persian power
*Persia's development into an empire under Cyrus
*The History, Geography, Customs of Egypt
*Some insights into the Trojan War
*The Persian conquest of Egypt
*The Persian failed attempt to conquer the Scythians
*The History, Geography, Customs of Scythia
*The events leading up to the revolt of the Ionians
*The quashing of the Ionian Rebellion
*The Persian defeat at Marathon
*The second Persian invasion and defeat in Greece

Herodotus's style may put off some readers. As he is describing one storyline, he drifts into related topics to provide background. So it takes patience or a love the subject to truly enjoy Herodotus. What I found most interesting is how he presents the various sides of a story. He will describe the differences in what various parties say is the truth and then provide his opinion on which is correct.

This is a must have for anyone interested in Greek or Persian history or even later Egyptian history.

This is great, fun book to read. This is a book you can read for enjoyment. I was reluctant to read it because I assumed it would be difficult because it was written around 425 BC. I assumed because it was ancient it would be difficult to read. That was wrong. It's a very entertaining read. It's also extremely interesting. Herodotus was a very smart and learned man for his time and it is interesting to read what he thinks. And the commentaries at the back of the book are also well done. Often the commentaries will note that Herodotus is just wrong in what he says, but sometimes he's right. I find myself switching between Herodotus and the commentaries. If you're at all interested in ancient history, you will not regret buying and reading this.

'The Histories' is one of my favorite books of all time. The prose is full of wit, and it is a pleasure to read. I cannot claim familiarity with all of the editions, so I can't pretend to know that this it the best edition, but I can say that I have no complaints about this edition. For anyone who is interested in ancient history, this book will be fascinating. Not only is it a entertaining glimpse into Mediterranean culture at the time, but it tells us about the history of history itself, the history of investigating our past.