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The Histories (text only) by Herodotus,C. Dewald,R. Waterfield Unknown Binding – January 1, 2008

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 455 ratings
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The Histories (Oxford World's Classics) [Paperback]Herodotus (Author) , Carolyn Dewald (Editor),Robin Waterfield (Translator)
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  1. Language
    English
  2. Publisher
    Oxford University Press, USA
  3. Publication date
    January 1, 2008
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0043DJ9IY
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press, USA (January 1, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 455 ratings

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  1. Herodotus

    Herodotus

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  2. Robin Waterfield

    Robin Waterfield

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    Robin Anthony Herschel Waterfield (born 1952) is a British classical scholar, translator, editor, and writer of children's fiction. Waterfield was born in 1952, and studied Classics at Manchester University, where he achieved a first class degree in 1974. He went on to research ancient Greek philosophy at King's College, Cambridge until 1978, after which he became a lecturer at Newcastle University and then St Andrews University. He later became a copy-editor and later a commissioning editor for Penguin Books. He is now a self-employed writer, living in southern Greece, where he has Greek citizenship.

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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
455 global ratings
Good book but….
3 Stars
Good book but….
Just got this today and some how my book on the bottom damaged (like wet) the other book that came with it was perfectly fine so it wasn’t the shipping but probably the vendor.Still can’t wait to read it!
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Top reviews from the United States

Clint
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2023
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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.
One person found this helpful
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JoshJosh
5.0 out of 5 stars Quite surprising
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2016
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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.
89 people found this helpful
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Ivo
5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic work of academia
Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2023
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Faithful to the original text, simple text layout and extensive notes made by the translator.

Can't go wrong with Oxford!
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Michael Tobin
4.0 out of 5 stars Your Patience Rewarded
Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2018
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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.
16 people found this helpful
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Stanley F. Levine
5.0 out of 5 stars very good translation
Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2013
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This translation reads very well, makes for an exciting and enjoyable read; if you like a good story you'll find more than enough of them here. Also comparisons of the Greek vs. the Persian version of the story of the conflict between East and West. Ethnographic sections about Egypt, Persia, and all sorts of places East of Greece: Lydians, Medes, Phoenicians, Bactrians, etc. Very long, but its the kind of book you can enjoy reading just a part of, then come back if you like after 3 months (or three years) to read some more.

Binding seems good.
One person found this helpful
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Jindrich Zapletal
5.0 out of 5 stars The Good Soldier Schweik of antiquity
Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2019
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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.
20 people found this helpful
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Louis Wislocki
5.0 out of 5 stars Herodotus is nothing like I expected
Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2018
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Herodotus is nothing like I expected. Enjoying it immensely. For being one of the earliest histories written, there is not a boring pages. Reading the Histories is like reading the first journalists who gather information and stories from all over the Mediterranean. The translation makes it very readable. I find myself laughing at the natural comedy of life everyday life each time I pick it up. Herodotus records the many brutal acts of ancient people.
8 people found this helpful
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jeff levine
5.0 out of 5 stars So Good, but buy it for keeps not just so you can say "read it!"
Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2015
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This is a great book. And just like the English Patient you will keep reading this all your life.
The charm for me is in the fantastical "histories"; Giant ants mining gold, flying serpents hunted by pigmies. Crazy!
but there is real value in the actual histories- this is important stuff about the origin of written history and he writes of the complexity ( political and social) of the ancient world. It's a great book.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Gjorgji Efremov
5.0 out of 5 stars Gutes Übersetzung
Reviewed in Germany on January 31, 2024
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Einfach alles prima. Gutes Qualität, schnelle Lieferung. Die Erklärung hinten ist sehr wichtig und nötig. Bin Historiker.
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Cliente Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent translation and a very decent kindle edition
Reviewed in Spain on February 6, 2019
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Robin Waterfield provides an excellent translation accompanied by good preface and useful notes. The only drawback is the small maps due to the Kindle format but they have been worse elsewhere. For me the Kindle was a natural choice as Oxford Classics series come with ridiculous small print that is a challenge to my eyes.
Highly recommend.
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YIWEI
5.0 out of 5 stars Nice book
Reviewed in Japan on February 12, 2020
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One of the classic books written by “the father of history”
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in India on August 26, 2016
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Get book. I missed reading it all these years.My loss
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Malcolm Shearmur
5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoy the cracking stories
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 2, 2012
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The Histories is Herodotus' account of how Persia came to control Asia and how poor and fractious Greek states repelled the invasion of a massive army and navy comprising all the people under Persian domination, including Phoenician sailors and spear-wielding Ethiopians in leopard skins.

Herodotus reports stories that he has picked up on travels around the Mediterranean about historical events of the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, and about social mores among the people involved. The sources are rarely identified, and Herodotus himself is less than certain about the credibility of some of the tales. There's probably as much myth as there is history in this book, but the translator's notes are very helpful at separating the wheat from the chaff for the reader who wants to know (I'm referring to the Oxford World's Classics edition translated by Robin Waterfield, just in case Amazon posts this review on every other edition, as it is wont to do).

For a history of the period, there are probably much better books to read than this one. What's exciting about The Histories is the feeling of hearing the account of events as it was told in Plato's Athens. Here are the stories that were shared in antiquity about the bravery of the Spartans at Thermopylae, the wiliness of Themistocles, the fearsome habits of the Cannibals, and the hubris of Xerxes, to mention just a few.

Regardless of their truth, the stories are hugely entertaining, such as the one about the renegade Egyptian commander whose only response to the messenger come to deliver an ultimatum from the Pharoah was to raise himself on his saddle and fart, or the better known story about the lashing of the Hellespont ordered by the Persian emperor Xerxes for not remaining calm during his army's passage. If nothing else, they confirm that malicious gossip is not a modern invention.
4 people found this helpful
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