About this title: Herodotus (c480-c425BC) is "The Father of History" and his "Histories" are the first piece of Western historical writing. They are also the most entertaining. Why did Pheidippides run the 26 miles and 385 yards (or 42.195 kilometres) from Marathon to Athens? And what did he do when he got there? Was the Battle of Salamis fought between sausage ...
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Description: Good. 0140440348 Binding square and tight, with spine creasing. Corner creases and minor edge wear. Previous owner name on inside front cover. Pages clean and unmarked. Satisfaction guaranteed. Ships Immediately from CA. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very good. Very minimal damage to the cover (no holes or tears, only minimal scuff marks), in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, minimal to no highlighting/under. read more
Description: Good. Minimal damage to the cover, dust jacket not necessarily included minimal wear to binding, majority of pages undamaged, minimal to no highlighting/underlining of text, no missing p. read more
Description: Good. Minimal damage to the cover, dust jacket not necessarily included minimal wear to binding, majority of pages undamaged, minimal to no highlighting/underlining of text, no missing p. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780192824257ISBN:0192824252
Description: Acceptable. Considerable cover wear and tear with creasing and scuffing to edges. Minor markings and underlining on pages. "USED" sticker on back cover page. GoodwillnyBooks is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard of customer service. You may return new items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Date Published: 1954-08-30
ISBN-13:9780140440348ISBN:0140440348
Description: Good. Mild shelf and corner wear; Mild tanning to pages with browning to page edges; Mild rubbing\wear\soiling to covers and spine; ** Free USPS tracking and confirm on US orders ** read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: J.M. Dent & Sons
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780460871709ISBN:0460871706
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. No marks on pages. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 748 p. Everyman Paperback Classics. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. } Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. 2003-Paperback-Cover shows minor shelf wear. ---Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
"As a self-taught Classics student, this is one of the few I've bought for further study, although many libraries have it. The companion is the Landmark Theucidides (sp?) which I also have.
These two books have been recently edited to include amazing maps and annotations which allow the reader to instantly have the background knowledge to puzzle out what is happening.
Herodotus spent his life in Classical Greece seeing the world and writing what he observed or heard the occupants tell of their own culture's history. He earned his nickname "The Father of History".
This book is huge, but the stories themselves are only a few pages each. Only the Bible is as interesting when the reader randomly opens the book and starts to read. Will I end up in Egypt, Thrace, or Persia?
And the stories are wild! Every human sin and honor is in there."
"David Grene's translation of Herodotus' "The History" is a good version of the Greek historian's magnum opus.
The Introduction provides context for the translation to come. It is useful and functional. Grene notes of Herodotus' work that" "There are two worlds of meaning that are constantly in Herodotus' head. The one is that of human calculation, reason, cleverness, passion, happiness. There, one knows what is happening and, more or less, who is the agent of cause. The other is the will of Gods, or fate, or the intervention of daimons."
In the History itself, Herodotus ranges widely geographically, and considers many different countries. With these, he discusses in detail such varied matters as hygiene, sex, culture, animals, religion, geographical features, and so on. He appears to have tried to ascertain as best as he could what the actuality was and what hearsay or rumor was. One of the more interesting examples of this is his effort to understand the role of Helen in the Trojan War (2, 120). Here, he doubts the veracity of Homer's rendering of the causes of the war. He believes that Helen never did go to Troy, because Priam would not have been willing to risk his empire over one woman. At other places, he clearly states the different versions of some incident and then renders his own best judgment as to what he thought the reality was. In short, he did not simply retell tales that he heard. When he is not sure what actually happened, he says so (e.g., 1, 49; 1, 75).
In the end, Herodotus has done a great service for many generations, by putting down, as best he could, his understanding of the history of the various actors of his time and before. The reader will find it difficult to keep all the people and countries straight. The volume features a useful set of maps, providing a sense of the different countries mentioned, as well as the travels of armies on conquests.
The book moves ahead in a majestic trajectory to ultimately describe the Persian-Greek War, with Xerxes leading his great force into Greece. Herodotus provides detail on many aspects of this conflict, which the Greeks eventually won, after battles at Thermopylae, Salamis, and Platea.
For an early effort at history, Herodotus' work is important to be aware of. And Grene's translation makes the work accessible to readers today."
"This is an unannotated Book Club edition of the 1858 Rawlinson translation. The edition tagged to this was the only similar one I could find with a picture!
I enjoyed this far more than I thought I would: thank you Michael Ondaatje, for I have been determined to read this ever since The English Patient.
The earlier books, where Herodotus describes the world and tells lots of stories are great fun, not least because of his inimitable voice: he often takes care to list his sources and give all versions or explanations before saying which he believes is the most credible and why. Even so, he remains credulous, even gullible, in the face of some travellers' tales - I love the idea of sheep with tails so long that they drag them after them on little trucks so the wool is not damaged. His little asides and dismissive scepticism made me smile.
The last few books are a detailed description of the war between the Greeks and the Persians. I found the beginning of this section and the details of Darius' campaign a little drier than the rest but, once the Athenians were battling to get everyone to work together, the pace picked up again and I was disappointed when it came to an abrupt end.
The most difficult thing about this text is the sheer number of names - I'm not sure I could tell you the role of more than half a dozen people because I just glossed over those that got mentions only or who played a part in one small tale. Were I a more careful reader, or the sort that likes to follow threads carefully, I suspect I would have become somewhat frustrated.
What I really wanted was a map, something this edition was without, but one can hardly blame the author (or even the translator) for that."
"An utterly fascinating tour of the ancient world in a surprisingly accessible style. Herodotus recounts the foundation and rise of the Persian Empire and its eventual conflict with Athens, Sparta and the rest of the Greek world.
Herodotus may be the father of history, but his style is not yet what we would call "scholarly". Rather, the Histories is made up of countless stories of the heroes and villains of his time. Amusingly enough, he always makes clear when a story seems to him less than believable, or when multiple versions of a single story exist. There is, therefore, the beginning of a scholarly detachment from his subject matter, but the book is still chock full of fantastical feats, the intervention of gods and barely-justified guesstimations (Xerxes' army was 2.5 million strong, he claims. The modern consensus: 200,000).
Amidst these tales are digressions galore -- sometimes stories are nested within stories, other times, he takes the opportunity of Darius' arrival at a river to tell as about all the various peoples who live along that same river, what they wear, what they eat and how they came to be where they are. These catalogs are without a doubt the driest part of the book -- and can sometimes go on for a long long time. However, it is their methodical and comprehensive nature that makes the Histories a book of history rather than mythology ... and they are easily skipped.
The best part of this book: through all the digressions and catalogs and tales, the overarching story that Herodotus is telling is that of the conflict between Greek democracy and Persian despotism. And perhaps the most shocking aspect of this conflict is the fact that the rhetoric of freedom vs. tyranny, democracy vs. despotism is ANYTHING but new, but has been with us for thousands of years. Some of its passages (about how the threat to freedom must be met head-on, how the free man is stronger than a hundred slaves) could have come straight from George W. Bush's oval office.
Note: the edition I read had a "narrative guide" at the front and several maps of the regions focused on. VERY useful."
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