List of historians

This is a list of historians.

The names are grouped by order of the historical period in which they were writing, which is not necessarily the same as the period in which they specialised.

Chroniclers and annalists, though they are not historians in the true sense, are also listed here for convenience.

Ancient historians

• Appian, Roman history
• Dio Cassius, Roman history
• Fa-Hien, Chinese Buddhist monk and historian, author of A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms: Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hein of his Travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414), In Search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline.
• Gaius Acilius, Roman history
• Lucius Ampelius, Roman history
• Herodotus, (485--c.420 BC), Halicarnassian "Father of History"
• Thucydides, (c.460--400 BC), Peloponnesian War
• Xenophon, (431--c.360 BC), an Athenian knight and student of Socrates
• Polybius, (c.203--120 BC)
• Julius Caesar, (c.100--44 BC), Gallic and civil wars
• Flavius Josephus, (37--100), Jewish history
• Kalhana
• Sima Qian, (c.140 BC), Chinese history
• Livy, (c.59 BC--17 AD), Roman history
• Cremutius Cordus
• Sallust, (86--34 BC)
• Plutarch, (c. 46--120 AD)
• Gaius Cornelius Tacitus, (c. 56--c. 120), early Roman Empire
• Suetonius, (75--160)
• Eusebius of Caesarea, Christian history
• Ammianus Marcellinus, (c.325--c.391)
• Arrian
• Quintus Fabius Pictor, Roman history
• Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman history

Medieval historians/chroniclers

• Jordanes, (6th century), Goths
• Procopius, (d. c. 565), Byzantines
• Gregory of Tours, (538--594), Franks
• Bede, (c. 632--735), Anglo-Saxons
• Nennius
• Asser, Bishop of Sherborne (d. 908/9) - Welsh monk, Life of Alfred
• Regino of Prüm (d. 915)
• Geoffrey of Monmouth, churchman/historian
• Albert of Aix, historian of the first crusade
• Michael Psellus the Younger, (1018--c. 1078)
• Sima Guang (1019--1086), historiographer and politician
• Marianus Scotus (1028--1082/3), Irish chronicler
• Guibert of Nogent (1053--1124)
• Florence of Worcester (d. 1118), English chronicler
• Eadmer (c. 1066--c. 1124), post-Conquest English history
• Symeon of Durham (d. after 1129), English chronicler
• William of Malmesbury (c. 1080--c. 1143)
• Anna Comnena (1083--after 1148)
• Usamah ibn Munqidh (1095--1188)
• Adam of Bremen
• Thallus (historian),
• Saxo Grammaticus, (12th century), Danish
• Svend Aagesen, (12th century), Danish
• Alured of Beverley (12th century), English chronicler
• William of Tyre (c. 1128--1186)
• John of Worcester (fl. 1150), English chronicler
• Giraldus Cambrensis (c.1146--c.1223)
• Ambrose the poet (fl. 1190)
• Geoffroi de Villehardouin, (c. 1160--1212)
• Nicetas Choniates (died c. 1220)
• Matthew Paris, (died 1259)
• Jean de Joinville, (1224--1319)
• Rashid al-Din, (1247--1317)
• ibn Khaldun, (1332--1406)
• Piers Langtoft, (died c. 1307)
• Jean Froissart, (c.1337--c.1405), chronicler
• Dietrich of Nieheim, (c.1345--1418), ecclesiatic history
• Alphonsus A Sancta Maria, (1396--1456)
• Johannes Longinus, Polish historian and chronicler
• Philippe de Commines, French historian
• Christine de Pizan, (c.1365--c.1430), historian, poet, philosopher
• Albert Krantz, (1450--1517)
• Polydore Vergil (c.1470--1555), Tudor history
• João de Barros (1496--1570)
• Josias Simmler, (1530--1576)
• Raphael Holinshed, (died c. 1580)
• Caesar Baronius, (1538--1607)
• John Hayward, (1564--1627)

Early modern historians (1600--1900)

• Ludovico Antonio Muratori, (1672--1750), Italy
• Johann Lorenz Von Mosheim, (1694-1755) Lutheran historian
• Voltaire, (1694--1778), French Enlightenment philosopher, historian, and novelist, author of Candide.
• Edward Gibbon, (1737--1794), Roman Empire
• Johannes von Müller, (1752--1809)
• Anton Tomaz Linhart, (1756--1795)
• Piers Mackesy, (1775--1890), British and US military history
• François Guizot, (1787-1874), French historian of general French, English history
• George Grote, (1794--1871), classical Greece
• Leopold von Ranke, (1795--1886), German
• François Mignet, (1796--1884), French historian of the Revolution, Middle Ages
• William H. Prescott, (1796--1859), US historian of Spain, Mexico, Peru
• Adolphe Thiers, (1797--1877), French historian of the Revolution, Empire
• Jules Michelet, (1798--1874), French
• Thomas Macaulay, (1800--1859), British and Roman
• Ludwig von Köchel, (1800--1877), writer, composer, botanist, music historian
• Theodor Mommsen, (1817--1903), Roman Empire
• Jacob Burckhardt, (1818--1897), art history, European history, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy.
• Zacharias Topelius, (1818--1898)
• Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, (1828--1897), Spanish historian
• Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges, (1830--1889), antiquity, France
• Heinrich von Treitschke, (1834--1896)
• Henry Adams, (1838--1918), Democracy: An American Novel
• Alfred Thayer Mahan, (1840--1914), naval history
• Frederic William Maitland, (1850--1906), legal history
• Simon Rutar, (1851--1903)
• Arnold Toynbee, (1852--1883), British
• Paul Vinogradoff, (1854-1925), later Roman Empire
• Henri Pirenne, (1862--1935), Belgian

Modern historians (after 1900)

• Robert G. Albion, maritime history
• Gar Alperovitz, American historian, wrote Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima & Potsdam.
• Stephen Ambrose, (1936--2002), American historian, U.S. history.
• Herbert Aptheker, (1915-2003), African American history and slave revolts
• Leonard J. Arrington (1917-1999), Mormon historian
• Jonathan Atkins, American historian, pre-civil war U.S. history.
• Charles A. Beard, (1874--1948), American historian, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States.
• Isaiah Berlin, (1909--1997), history of ideas
• Michael Beschloss, American historian and celebrity intellectual, history of the U.S. presidency.
• David Blackbourn
• Marc Bloch (1886--1944), medieval France
• John Boswell, (1947--1994), mediævalist and gay history
• Paul Boyer, American historian, author of By the Bomb's Early Light.
• Ferdinand Braudel
• Robin Briggs
• Peter Brown
• Alan Bullock
• Peter Burke
• J. B. Bury, classical history
• Jeffrey Burton Russell
• Angus Calder, British historian, British history.
• Otto Maria Carpeaux, foremost historian of Literature
• E. H. Carr, (1892--1982) Soviet history, International Relations
• Lionel Casson
• Boris Celovsky, Czech-German relations
• Howard I. Chapelle, maritime history
• Robert Conquest, Russia, Soviet Union
• Gordon Craig
• David B. Danbom
• Saul David, military history
• John Davies
• Norman Davies
• Vernon E. Davis, American historian, author of The Long Road Home: U.S. Prisoner of War Policy and Planning in Southeast Asia.
• Isaac Deutscher, British historian and political biographer, Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin
• Tom Devine, Scottish historian, author of The Scottish Nation: A History, 1700-2000.
• Robert Divine, diplomatic history
• John W. Dower, American historian, author of War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War.
• Georges Duby, (1924--1996), Middle Ages
• Eamon Duffy, 15th-17th century religious history
• Trevor Dupuy
• Geoff Eley
• John Elliott, Early Modern Spain
• Geoffrey Elton, Tudor England
• Ronan Fanning, Irish historian
• Brian Farrell,
• Lucien Febvre, (1878--1956), French historian
• Niall Ferguson, British historian, author of The Pity of War: Explaining World War I.
• Joachim Fest, (born 1926), Nazi Germany
• Orlando Figes, Russia
• David Hackett Fuscher, American economic historian, author of "The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History.
• Fritz Fischer, German historian.
• Frances Fitzgerald, American journalist and historian, author of the influential Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and Americans in Vietnam.
• Michael FitzGerald, British writer and historiana, author of 'Storm Troopers of Satan' and 'Adolf Hitler: A Portrait'
• Michel Foucault, (1926--1984), French historian of ideas / philosopher
• Walter Frank, (1905--1945), Nazi historian and anti-Semitic writer
• H. Bruce Franklin American historian of the Vietnam War, wrote M.I.A. or Mythmaking in America.
• Antonia Fraser, England
• Sheppard Frere
• Bruno Fuligni
• Francis Fukuyama, (born 1955)
• François Furet, French historian
• John Lewis Gaddis, diplomatic history
• Alexandra Gajda, Elizabethan Historian
• Pieter Geyl, Dutch historian
• Martin Gilbert
• Carol Gluck American historian, author of Japan's Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period.
• Bogo Grafenauer (1916--1995), Slovene mediaevalist
• Peter Green, ancient history
• Lionel Groulx, (1878--1967), priest, historian
• Denys Hay, (1915--1994), medieval and Renaissance Europe
• Jeffrey Herf, German and European history
• Christopher Hill, (1912--2003), 17th century England
• Eric Hobsbawm, British historian, labour history
• Richard Hofstadter, (1916--1970), American political historian, intellectual historian, author of The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It, The Age of Reform, and Anti-Intellectualism in American Life.
• Richard Holmes
• Michael Howard
• Johan Huizinga, Dutch historian, author of Waning of the Middle Ages.
• Tristram Hunt, (born 1974)
• Michael Ignatieff. author of Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond
• Eiko Ikegami Japanese historian, wrote The Taming of the Samurai
• Jonathan Israel, British historian
• Pawel Jasienica, (1909--1970), Polish historian, Polish history
• Marius Jensen, American historian, author of China in the Tokugawa World.
• Amy Johnson American historian, modern Egpytian history
• Gwyn Jones, medieval history
• Gregory J. Kasza, American historian, author of The State and the Mass Media in Japan, 1918-1945.
• John Keegan, American historian, popular military history
• George F. Kennan, (a.k.a. 'X') American diplomat and historian, history of US-Soviet relations
• Paul Kennedy, British historian, author of influential The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers.
• Ian Kershaw, German history
• Daniel J. Kevles, history of science, In the Name of Eugenics, and The Physicists.
• France Kidrič, (1880--1950), literary history
• Thomas Kuhn, (1922--1996), history of science, author of The Copernican Revolution, Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity, and the influential The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
• Michael Laffan, Irish historian
• David Lavender, (1910--2003), history of the American West
• Melvyn Leffler, modern international relations
• Barbara Levick, English historian; Roman emperors
• Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie
• Leon F. Litwack, American history, African-American history, author of Been in the Storm so Long: The Aftermath of Slavery, and Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow.
• James W. Loewen
• Li Ao, (born 1935), Chinese historian
• John Edward Lloyd
• Sr. Margaret MacCurtain, Irish mediævalist
• Charles B. MacDonald, World War II
• Rosamond McKitterick
• Ramsay MacMullen
• Magnus Magnusson, Norse history
• Charles Maier
• Robert Mann, American historian of the Vietnam War, wrote A Grand Delusion: America's Descent into Vietnam.
• Inga Markovits, author of Imperfect Justice: An East-West German Diary.
• Tyrone G. Martin, USS Constitution.
• Rev. F.X. Martin, Irish mediævalist and campaigner
• William McNeill
• Laurence Marvin American historian, French mediævalist
• Yoshihisa Tak Matsutaka, wrote The Making of Japanese Manchuria, 1904-1932.
• Garrett Mattingly, early modern Europe
• Friedrich Meinecke, German historian
• Hans Mommsen
• Wolfgang Mommsen
• Kenneth O Morgan
• Samuel Eliot Morison, naval history
• Gary Moulton, Lewis and Clark
• Lewis Mumford, (1895--1988)
• Leo Niehorster, military history
• Henry Newbolt, (1862--1938)
• Frank Ninkovich
• Robert Novick
• Gerard Oram, author of Military Executions during World War I
• Richard Overy, modern history
• Thomas Paterson
• Peter Paret, military history
• Geoffrey Parker, early modern military history
• Amos Perlmutter
• Harry W. Pfanz, U.S. Civil War
• Richard Pipes, conservative American historian, Russian and Soviet history
• J. H. Plumb, (1911--2001), British historian
• Roy Porter, (1946--2002), British historian, history of medicine
• Eileen Power, Middle Ages
• Ivan Prijatelj, (1875--1937), literary history
• Janko Prunk, (1942 -) Slovenian historian for modern history
• Ludwig Quidde, (1858--1941), historian and pacifist
• Gerhard Ritter, German history
• B. H. Roberts, (1857-1933), Mormon historian and leader
• William L. Rodgers
• Sue Rabbitt Roff, American science historian, author of Hotspots: The Legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• Alex Roland, history of technology
• Theodore Roosevelt, American president and historian, War of 1812, frontier
• Sheila Rowbotham
• A L Rowse, (1903--1997)
• Miri Rubin, social history of Europe between 1100-1600
• Steven Runciman, Crusades
• Conrad Russell, historian of 17th century Britain
• Cornelius Ryan, American historian, World War II
• George Sarton, (1884-1956), history of science, The Study of the History of Science.
• Norman Saul
• Michael Schaller
• Simon Schama, (born 1945), British historian and TV presenter, European and art history
• Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
• Howard Hayes Scullard (1903--1983), ancient history
• Robert Service
• Kenneth Setton, Crusades
• James J. Sheehan
• Michael Sherry
• William L. Shirer, American journalist and historian, author of Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
• Quentin Skinner
• Goldwin Smith, (1823--1910), historian
• Thomas C. Smith, (1917--2004), Japanese historian, author The Agrarian Origins of Modern Japan
• R. Malcolm Smuts, Tudor-Stuart Political Culture
• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, (born 1918), Russian historian and novelist
• Christy Jo Snider, American historian
• Jonathan Spence, popular Chinese history
• Jackson J. Spielvogel, Pennsylvania State University
• Kenneth Stampp, American history, author The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South.
• David Starkey, (born 1945), Tudor historian and TV presenter
• Frank Stenton, Anglo-Saxon historian
• Ronald Syme, (1903--1989), ancient history
• A. J. P. Taylor, (1906--1990), Historian of European International Relations
• Hugh Thomas, Spanish Civil War, Cuba, Atlantic Slave Trade
• E. P. Thompson, (1924--1993), British Labour historian and peace activist, author of The Making of the English Working Class.
• Elise Tipton, American and Australian hisotrian, author of Japanese Police State: Tokko in Interwar Japan.
• Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian, wrote The Old Regime and the French Revolution, Democracy in America.
• Conrad Totman, American historian, wrote A History of Japan.
• Arnold J. Toynbee, (1889--1975), A Study of History.
• Marc Trachtenberg, Cold War history
• George Macaulay Trevelyan
• Hugh Trevor-Roper, (1914--2003), British historian and peer, specialist on the Nazi leadership
• Barbara Tuchman, British historian, wrote Vinegar Joe Stillwell and the American Experience in China.
• Robert C. Tucker, Stalin
• Frederick Jackson Turner, (1861--1932), American historian who developed the Frontier Thesis
• Retha M Warnicke, (born 1939), Tudor history & gender issues
• Cicely Veronica Wedgwood, (1910--1997)
• Hans-Ulrich Wehler, German history
• Russell Weigley, military history
• Lieselotte Welskopf-Henrich
• John Whyte, focused on Northern Ireland and on divided societies
• Peter Booth Wiley, American historian, author of Yankees in the Land of the Gods: Commodore Perry and the Opening of Japan.
• Eric Williams, (1911--1981), Guianese historian, Caribbean history, anti-imperialist themes
• Glanmor Williams
• Mary Wilhelmine Williams
• Heinrich August Winkler, German history
• John B. Wolf, French history
• Michael Wood
• C. Vann Woodward, (1908--1999), southern United States
• Robert M. Young, (born 1935), American historian, history of medicine and human sciences
• Howard Zinn, American historian, popular U.S. history, the Left in the U.S.
• Terry Jones

Unsorted

• Pierre Vidal-Naquet, historian and Civil Rights activist
• Henri Raymond Casgrain, priest, author, historian
• Peter Englund, Swedish historian
• Justo Gonzalez, historian and theologian
• Claude Mossé, (Ms), historian
• Albert Soboul, historian
• Jean-Pierre Vernant, historian
• Pierre Vilar, historian
• Hegel, philosopher