The Histories
by Herodotus Herodotus · first published 2018
31% recommend69% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Lively, twist-filled storytelling on the Persian Wars and the ancient world, with people who think much like us. Good context before Thucydides; translation matters, and annotated editions with maps help.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…Machiavelli 12. Evolutionary Game Theory by Jörgen W. Weibull 13. On Guerrilla Warfare by Mao Tse-tung 14. The History of the Peloponnesian War: Revised Edition (Penguin Classics) by Thucydides 15. The Histories (Penguin Classics) by Herodotus 16. The Persian Expedition (Penguin Classics) by Xenophon 17. Plutarch: Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans (Modern Library Series, Vol. 1) by Plutarch 18. Plutarch's…
on “Ask HN: good books about military strategy?” ↗…inifinity) Lord of Light, by Zelazny (fiction, but transcendent) The Trial of Socrates, by I.F. Stone (makes the case that Socrates was a genuine threat to his society) Any book by Ryszard Kapuscinski The Histories, by Herodotus To Engineer is Human, by Petroski A History of Knowledge, by Charles Van Doren
on “Ask HN: Books That Gratify One's Intellectual Curiosity?” ↗Reading Herodotus' "The Histories" was life altering for me - I highly recomend it - but you MUST read a quality translation. I read the translation by Robin Waterfield. There are other good translations. What you should not do is download…
on “Nile shipwreck discovery proves Herodotus right” ↗The Histories by Herodotus was life changing for me (see my handle!). But, be aware that it has to be a good translation: the online free ones are not the ones you should read. Why? Because until I read it my only…
on “Ask HN: Life Changing Books?” ↗"The Histories" by Herodotus is a wonderful read, but it really matters which translation you use. The is the one I read is translated by Robin Waterfield. https://www.amazon.com/Histories-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0...…
on “Egyptian Circumnavigation of Africa ~600 BC” ↗Years ago I read Herodotus' Histories and it left a big impression on me. I believe it mostly takes place around 2kBc but you realize that psychologically the people are pretty much the same as modern people. That's not to say they act the…
on “Someone in the Kalahari Collected Crystals 105,000 Years Ago” ↗…likely to happen. The cold war had plenty of awful hot action with proxies and third parties but the entirely hot version obviously would have been far more calamitous. I suggest reading Herodotus’ Histories, or you can read up on Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Hitler, Alexander, the Crusades, or the myriad other conquerors and conflicts that have occurred.
on “Proof of stake is incapable of producing a consensus” ↗- Herodotus: The Histories (Landmark Series version highly recommended). - Any book by Nassim Taleb (I'd recommend starting with Antifragile). - The Count of Monte Cristo (Most fun novel I have ever read). - Moby Dick or The…
on “Ask HN: What Books Do You Recommend Reading for 2022?” ↗Herodotus's Histories is probably the best place to start. Maybe 50% of it is accurate, as it was common among historians of the day to create functional exchanges of historical figures to simulate the debate of ideas, such…
on “Hawking: We need to rethink our attitude towards wealth” ↗…list: The History of the Peloponessian War - Thucydides. On book 3 right now, it's some of the most profound political strategy and philosophy I've ever read. It really helps if you read Herodotus' Histories before hand, to give context on the Persian War, and how what we now call Greece ended up in this mess. It's extremely illustrative, and if you've read it, the rise of populism after 70 years of American…
on “Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?” ↗At the risk of sounding pretentious, I very much enjoyed Herodotus' "The Histories" (Sélincourt translation). It reads like a Game of Thrones season with all its twists and turns. (Side-note: I usually multitask a number of books and many months can pass until reading resumes. Yes,…
on “Books I recommend to my software engineering students” ↗I found The Histories by Herodotus [0] to be an amazing read. While it's not 100% accurate as we know today, the time and effort spent compiling this when it was written is definitely impressive. This one is a reasonably lengthy…
on “Ask HN: What are your favourite history books?” ↗…Voice, by Stanislaw Lem (Along the same lines as Sagan's Contact, but better, way better.) - Buddha's Little Finger, by Victor Pelevin Some my favorite "non-fiction" books: - The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories, edited by Robert Strassler - The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon - Antifragile, by Nassim Taleb - The Black Swan, by Nassim Taleb - Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal…
on “Ask HN: What are some must read books?” ↗I wholeheartedly recommend the Landmark Herodotus: https://www.amazon.ca/Landmark-Herodotus-Histories-Robert-St... The indices, maps, and other additional information was a great aid in understanding the text.
on “Ask HN: Life Changing Books?” ↗OT wrt. TFA, but per your comment--for anyone who hasn't read Herodotus's Histories, do yourself a favor and pick it up. Great storytelling and thought provoking throughout.
on “A 1903 Proposal to Preserve the Dead in Glass Cubes” ↗