Herodotus. Father of History.

Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1999. Reprint 1st ed.1953. Sandpiper edition. VIII,315p. Original blue gilt titled cloth with dust wrps. Nice copy. 'Those who like to have solutions to their historical problems cut and dried in neat bundles, may find it a disappointing book. But those to whom historical imagination appears the prime requisite of an historian and who are prepared for an occasional suspension of disbelief in the interests of what may prove a fruitful hypothetical reconstruction will find here many points of stimulation and aids to insight. The book falls into two main parts, the first devoted to a general appraisement of Herodotus as a writer of histories, the second of historical notes on his work. (...) The second, and to me at least the most rewarding, part of the book is a series of discussions on some of the historical issues raised by the 'Histories'. What gives the discussions a quite unique value is the author's easy familiarity with the whole terrain covered by Herodotus' work, happily mated with a gift for clear and graphic description. (...) The merit of the book we have lies in the close imaginative identification of the mind of the author with that of his subject.' (A.R.W. HARRISON in The Classical Review (New Series), 1954, pp.233-235).