The Father of History: This Time Is Sometimes Different in Markets

Abstract

We have peppered a large amount of the book with quotations from Herodotus’ mammoth text The Histories of Herodotus (Herodotus & Macaulay (trans), 1890), also known more succinctly as The Histories. It remains a very well-known work millennia after it was written, as evidenced by the plethora of translations available. These include a recent one by Tom Holland, which was published whilst I was writing my book (Herodotus & Holland (trans), 2013). I found Holland’s translation very readable, and the book also contains an enlightening introduction by Paul Cartledge. Alongside this, I have used quotations from an older text (Herodotus & Macaulay (trans), 1890), which I would also recommend. A somewhat lighter introduction can be found in Travels with Herodotus (Kapuscinski, 2008), which mixes the thoughts of Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski during his own travels with passages from Herodotus. If you enjoy Kapuscinski’s take on Herodotus, I would also recommend his book The Shadow of the Sun (Kapuscinski, 2002) about his experiences in Africa.

The words of men they tell us the stories,

Of times gone past written in The Histories,

Of wars of Greece, ancient, fought with Persia,

So told to us for our memories’ nurture.