Top ten Historians

Michael Pitkowsky points to a discussion of the top ten historians.  I decided to write my own list of historians that have influenced my thinking, and came up with the following list of 20 (I couldn’t restrict myself to 10).  To avoid having this list become endless, I have only listed dead historians.  Here they are, sorted in terms of birth order:

• Herodotus (circa 485-425 BCE)
  • The Histories
• Thucydides (circa 460–395 BCE)
  • The Peloponnesian War
• Josephus (circa 37-100)
  • Jewish War
  • Antiquities of the Jews
• Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
  • The Prince
  • Discourses on Livy
  • Florentine Histories
• Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
  • Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
• Thomas Macaulay (1800-1859)
  • History of England
• Francis Parkman (1823-1893)
  • The Oregon Trail
  • France and England in North America
• Hubert Bancroft (1832-1918)
  • Native Races of the Pacific States
  • History of Central America
  • History of Mexico
  • History of the Northern Mexican States and Texas
  • History of Arizona and New Mexico
  • History of California
  • History of Nevada, Colorado and Wyoming
  • History of the North-West Coast
  • History of Oregon
  • History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana
  • History of British Columbia
  • History of Alaska
• W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963)
• Souls of Black Folk
• John Brown
• Black Reconstruction
• Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
  • History of Western Philosophy
• Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
  • Marlborough
  • History of the English-Speaking Peoples
  • The Second World War
• Charles Beard (1874-1948)
  • An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution
  • Rise of American Civilization
  • President Roosevelt and the Coming of War
• Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)
  • Abraham Lincoln
• George Sansom (1883-1965)
  • History of Japan
• Samuel Eliot Morison (1887-1976)
• Oxford History of the United States
• Growth of the American Republic
• European Discovery of America
• Christopher Columbus
• History of United States Naval Operations in World War II
• W. K. C. Guthrie (1906-1981)
  • History of Greek Philosophy
• Barbara Tuchman (1912-1989)
  • Guns of August
  • Zimmerman Telegram
  • Distant Mirror
  • March of Folly
  • Stillwell and the American Experience in China
• Shelby Foote (1916-2005)
  • The Civil War
• Harry Hinsley (1918-1998)
• British Intelligence in the Second World War
• Codebreakers:  Inside Story of Bletchley Park
• Jaroslav Pelikan (1923-2006)
  • The Christian Tradition 

I can’t resist adding two more living historians:

• Jonathan Spence (1936-)
• The Search for Modern China
• Question of Hu
• God’s Chinese Son
• Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci
• Treason by the Book
• Gate of Heavenly Peace
• Emperor of China
• Death of Woman Wang
• Simon Schama (1945-)
• Embarrassment of Riches
• Citizens
• Landscape and History
• Rembrandt’s Eyes
• History of Britain
• Rough Crossings