Start with one volume
Introducing the Ancient Greeks · Edith Hall (2014)
Two thousand years of Greek-speaking history in ten readable chapters, organized around what made the Greeks distinctive rather than a parade of dates. The overview that makes everything else on this page easier to place.
Then pick your war
Persian Fire · Tom Holland (2005)
The Persian Wars, Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, as narrative history with a thriller's pacing, and fair to the Persians, which older tellings rarely managed. If you want to remember why this period grips people, start here.
The Peloponnesian War · Donald Kagan (2003)
The one-volume distillation of Kagan's four-volume masterwork: Athens versus Sparta, democracy stress-testing itself into catastrophe. Reads uncomfortably contemporary, which is rather the point of reading it.
Then meet the inventors
The Histories · Herodotus (c. 430 BC)
The first history book, and still among the most entertaining: wars, gossip, travel notes, gold-digging ants. Herodotus checks sources, shrugs at some, and tells you he's doing it. A good modern translation (Tom Holland did one, fittingly) makes him feel a chatty two and a half millennia younger.
History of the Peloponnesian War · Thucydides (c. 400 BC)
The other founder: analytical where Herodotus is anecdotal, and the origin of political realism. The Melian Dialogue remains the coldest page in classical literature. Harder going than Herodotus; more quoted by generals.
Fitting Greece into a real life
The honest problem with ancient history is dose: these are dense books, and enthusiasm dies in the middle of chapter four. The countermeasure is the same one we sell everywhere else, because it works: small daily portions. 365 Days of World History (ours, flagged) serves one day in history per day, Greece included in its global rotation; and the world history shelf holds the broader single-volume picks. For the gods-and-heroes side of Greece, Greek mythology for beginners is the companion page to this one.
Common questions
What is the best book on ancient Greek history for beginners?
Edith Hall's Introducing the Ancient Greeks for the one-volume overview, then Tom Holland's Persian Fire for narrative momentum. Go to the ancient sources once the map is in your head.
Should I read Herodotus or Thucydides first?
Herodotus: he's warmer, stranger, and more fun, and he covers the earlier period. Thucydides rewards you more once you care about the politics, which Herodotus will have caused.
Is Thucydides hard to read?
Harder than Herodotus: dense speeches, cold analysis, minimal gossip. A modern translation with good maps helps enormously, and the payoff, the origin of political realism, is real.
How is Greek history different from Greek mythology?
History is Marathon and the Peloponnesian War, reconstructed from evidence; mythology is Zeus and Achilles, preserved as story. They braid constantly (Homer sits between them), which is why reading both makes each one better.