The best Herodotus books

The Atlantis story, first told by the Greek philosopher Plato, is one of the most intriguing tales from antiquity. But where did Atlantis come from? What was it like? And where did it go to? The author follows the quest for Atlantis from Scandinavia to Antarctica and explores how the story has been manipulated by successive generations—used by the Conquistadors to justify their annexations, and by Himmler to prove the Aryan supremacy. 

The Atlantis story is remarkably prescient in our ‘post-truth’ world, not because it invites a search for a mysterious lost continent, but because of its warnings about the disastrous effects of Atlantis-style luxury, excess, corruption, and imperialism on a prosperous society. It should be prescribed reading for every modern political leader.

Confucius said those who live within four seas are brothers (or sisters). I take this as gospel, so I could never accept Columbus as the first outsider to reach the Americas. As a kid, I found glass Japanese fishing floats on the beaches in Vancouver carried over here by the Kuroshio Current, so why not boats, explorers, crazy individuals like myself arriving here by accident or design?

Then I discovered the story of Huishen in the records of the Liang Dynasty, an Afghan Buddhist monk, who sailed 20,000 li (7000 miles) to the east in 458 A.D., more than a thousand years before Columbus. I cashed my advance and picked up a visa to Kabul from the Taliban embassy in Islamabad so I could follow Huishen’s ostensible route over the Himalayas to China, across the Taklamakan Desert, then over the Pacific to Canada, the U.S., and Latin America. One thing I hadn’t anticipated along the way was 9/11.

Originating in a conversation with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, this book got caught up in controversies about “fake” news and “fake” history. Yet it’s a work of history, not politics. I start in ancient Greece, cover the Civil War, and deal with the present. I show how revisionist history is found on the Right and Left and that both “sides” win major battles over history. I make clear that the most transformative change in historical interpretation resulted from the shift from Greek and Roman pagan histories to Christian ones starting in the 4th century AD. Along the way, I show why historians change their views, that thinking about the past is always argued about, and that all historical interpretations are incomplete and subject to change.

The ancient Greek writer Thucydides is widely acclaimed as a model historian, someone who managed to anticipate the key principles of studying the past objectively two and a half thousand years before the development of modern historiography. But in fact, while almost everyone praises Thucydides, they praise him for different and sometimes contradictory things - and they ignore aspects of his work that don't fit their own model of what history should be. In this book I explore the whole tradition of reading Thucydides since the Renaissance, to show how much more complex and debatable his approach to history actually was - and to reveal how it raises questions about our own assumptions about the true nature of history-writing.

The Greek Prince of Afghanistan follows the early life of Demetrius, prince of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom of ancient Afghanistan. He lives in a world of cultural fusion and conflict, and he faces threats from every direction. From the west, an army approaches under the banners of Antiochus, a Hellenistic monarch obsessed with ruling the lands once conquered by Alexander. From within, tensions build between the kingdom's Greek elite and non-Greek subjects. In desperate need of allies for the imminent war, Demetrius rides north to secure an alliance with the Scythians, a people rumored to eat their prisoners and feed their elderly to the dogs. But with his kingdom divided, their help may not be enough.

Phoenix is a vivid, novelistic history tracing the rise of Athens from relative obscurity to the edge of its so-called ‘Golden Age’, told through the lives of Miltiades and Cimon, the father and son whose defiance of Persia vaulted Athens to a leading place in the Greek world.

According to author and classicist, Daisy Dunn, “Stuttard writes with such passion and verve of these vibrant years in Athens's history. Such is the power of his storytelling that Miltiades and Cimon – both so often overlooked – soar as triumphantly as any phoenix from the ashes of antiquity.”

The importance of public financial management for the health and wellbeing of citizens was dramatically apparent as governments responded to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Having a government that is good at managing public money can be the difference between living and dying.

I wrote this book to explain how governments (local as well as national) manage public money. It is aimed primarily at the managers and civil servants who have to deliver public programmes, projects, and services but it also offers something to the general reader. It covers the core concepts of budgeting, taxation, value for money, accountability, and auditing. Ultimately, it explains that managing public money is an art, not a science.

The Greek Prince of Afghanistan follows the early life of Demetrius, prince of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom of ancient Afghanistan. He lives in a world of cultural fusion and conflict, and he faces threats from every direction. From the west, an army approaches under the banners of Antiochus, a Hellenistic monarch obsessed with ruling the lands once conquered by Alexander. From within, tensions build between the kingdom's Greek elite and non-Greek subjects. In desperate need of allies for the imminent war, Demetrius rides north to secure an alliance with the Scythians, a people rumored to eat their prisoners and feed their elderly to the dogs. But with his kingdom divided, their help may not be enough.

Galen of Pergamum, a Greek doctor in ancient Rome, is a fascinating figure, doctor to several Roman Emperors, a prolific writer, an overbearing egotist, a medical genius, an acute observer, and intelligent thinker, whose influence lasted for a millennium and a half. I have tried to explain the complexities of a man whose writings still provoke admiration or dissent, but rarely allow neutrality.

In the late Iron Age, Rome was a small collection of huts arranged over a few hills. By the third century BC, it had become a large and powerful city, with monumental temples, public buildings, and grand houses. It had conquered the whole of Italy and was poised to establish an empire. But how did it accomplish this historic transformation?

This book explores the development of Rome during this period, and the nature of its control over Italy, considering why and how the Romans achieved this spectacular dominance. For Rome was only one of a number of emerging centres of power during this period. From its complex forms of government to its innovative connections with other states, Kathryn Lomas shows what set Rome apart. Examining the context and impact of the city's dominance, as well as the key political, social, and economic changes it engendered, this is crucial reading for anyone interested in Ancient Rome.