Why is Herodotus considered the father of history?
Herodotus is considered the father of history because his history of the Persian War was the first narrative in the form that later came out be considered written history.
More importantly, Herodutus was one of the first to disregard the supernatural in his writings. You get this more when you get to Thucydides, but Herodutus, in general, tends to leave out things that are credited to the gods. Or he tries to find a logical explanation for them.
Although Herodotus may not have been the first to record history, his accomplishment was very admired by Greek authorities in Athens where he was provided temporary residence. The Athenians called him the "Father of History." The word for history at the time, was "inquiries." The book he wrote is called "The Researches or The Inquiries." Herodotus appears to have drawn on an Ionian tradition of storytelling, collecting and interpreting the oral histories he chanced upon in his travels. These oral histories often contained folktale motifs and demonstrated a moral, yet they also contained substantial facts relating to geography, anthropology and history, all compiled by Herodotus in an entertaining style and format. Sometime after his death, the Alexandrians properly formatted the book into 9 books and called it the "9 Muses."
He was the first person to collect 'historical' material and test the accuracy of the material. As a result of his inquiries a new word passed into Latin (historia) and this became 'History' in the English language
