Who's Your Favourite Historian?

Mine is Proffessor Keith Hopkins. My favourite ancient historian is Tacitus.

Mine was Michael Grant (still is I suppose, despite his recent passing). His writing style, light and easy yet vastly informative and on a great number of subjects, made Roman history widely accessable to the masses.

As for the ancients, my favorites are Caesar and Livy, but the best I feel is Tacitus.

Julius Caesar!

For now I'll stick to the ancients:

1. Polybius (terse yes, but that man was extremely insightful)

2. Livy (becuase he did his research & for including interesting anecdotes on superstitious happenings of a given year... )

3. Herodotus (I mean common!)

For now I'll stick to the ancients:

 

1. Polybius (terse yes, but that man was extremely insightful)

2. Livy (becuase he did his research & for including interesting anecdotes on superstitious happenings of a given year... )

3. Herodotus (I mean common!)

What, no Tacitus?

Adrian Goldsworthy is probably my favorite on Roman military history.

Of the ancients, Polybius and Josephus are my favorites [it's been so long since I've read Livy or Tacitus]. Both present a lot of first-hand information on the Romans from a non-Roman perspective. Polybius is especially good at a bigger picture, while Josephus does a great job on the military aspects of the Jewish War.

They were both a couple of major brown-nosers though.

For now I'll stick to the ancients:

 

1. Polybius (terse yes, but that man was extremely insightful)

2. Livy (becuase he did his research & for including interesting anecdotes on superstitious happenings of a given year... )

3. Herodotus (I mean common!)

 

What, no Tacitus?

Favonius,

I think Tacitus was an excellent historian of course! However, since this was asking for favorites, I left him off because my interests lie more in pre-Imperial Rome. I don't reference him as much, that's all.

Ancient: Livy, but also Ammianus Marcellinus for his rare insights into the 4th Century.

Recent: Goldsworthy/Gibbon (relatively recent )

1. Tocquerville

2. Moses

I've only read one book from Tom Holland, but honestly it was the most well written history book I ever read. More like a novel than an academic treatise. I much check out his other works.

Recent: Gibbon and Arnold Toynbee, both of who seem to me to be unique in their ability to seperate facts from meaningful trends, and meaningful trends from the substantive lessons of history.

Ancient: Tacitus, if for no other reasons because he is such a delightful read.

John Guilmartin (Gunpowder and Galleys), because he was one of my professors

Goittein and Lewis for their Mediterranean and Islamic works.

Lamb for just reading, not necessarily academics (can't reread For the Defense: Clarence Darrow enough times).

Medieval: Fulcher of Chartres

Ancient: Dionysius Halicarnassensis

I've only read one book from Tom Holland, but honestly it was the most well written history book I ever read. More like a novel than an academic treatise. I much check out his other works.

I agree he's a great writer and it does read like a novel. However I wasn't so impressed with his depiction of the end of the Republic. I thought he really harkened back to the historians of the 17th century-- in all the bad ways; The vast majority of Romans are the "mob", guilds are nothing more than gangs rather than any sort of economic protection society, and so on. Caesar comes off worse than he should-- Holland is very skeptical of his "mercy"-- and Cato comes off far better than he has a right to.

Well, I also think that Gibbon was an excellent historian. Fans of his may want to get a BBC documentary about some of his stuff on Caracalla, geta, Pertinax, and a few others. I think they will probably sell it on DVD, here's a starting point -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries...s-genius2.shtml

My favorite has to be AHM Jones. No one covers the details of late imperial history like the late professor Jones. His writing style is a little like a VCR manual, but he really does know how to present the facts and the likely conclusions in a detailed manner. If you are willing to work for it, few authors can give you better access to the details of late Roman history.

I would probably rank John Julius Norwich as the most enjoyable read. His 3 part series on Byzantium was a real page turner. His writing style is a lot of fun to read and he made me feel as if he was talking about people we both knew instead of historical figures who died more than one thousand years ago.

Also, I would like to mention Bury, Peter Brown and Runciman. I felt I gained a lot from each one of these men.