Herodotus : A Very Short Introduction

Oxford Very Short Introductions

The birth of history can be traced to fifth century BC Greece, and its first product was Herodotus's history of the Persian Wars. Both a critical thinker and a lively storyteller, Herodotus made this spell-binding work a compendium of everything that interested him. Discussing his cross-cultural comparisons of such things as eating and mating habits, his view of the gods, his fascination with rites surrounding death and burial - in short, his boundless curiosity - Jennifer Roberts shows why his work continues to be read with delight today.

Jennifer T. Roberts has published widely in the field of Greek history and historiography, and has particular interest in ancient and modern democracy, Herodotus, Thucydides, and ancient warfare.