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Favorite Historian?

Here’s a question for you history buffs…. who is your favorite historian? 

Excluding the classical historians (Herodotus, Livy, etc.) and the ones who lived history (Churchill, Grant, etc.), there are a number of very good historians.  I have enjoyed the work of John Toland.  I have also very much enjoyed the work of Victor Davis Hanson (his latest book was awesome).

But my favorite historian for some time has been B. H. Liddel Hart.  His research is second to none and his writing style is clear, concise, and accurate.  His writing reminds me of a good soldier where nothing is wasted and everything has a purpose.  No fluff.  No bull.  Just well researched, well written history. 

How about you?

Posted by Owen at 1156 hrs
Culture

1. I’ve got a number that I like.

   B.H. Liddell Hart is a new favorite of mine, since I’ve read Scipio Africanus and his biography of Sherman.

   Other than Hart though, I’ve consistently enjoyed VDH, much of John Keegan’s work, Richard B. Frank, Russell Weigley, and William Manchester.  I have a few problems with each, but nothing that prevents me from enjoying their work.

   Another recent find I’ve made is Fred Anderson. A People’s Army and Crucible of War were both amazing reads about a period of time I haven’t studied much yet.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on August 26, 2007 at 1325 hrs
   
   
   

2. I’m a big fan of Rick Atkinson’s work.

   The Long Gray Line—The story of West Point’s Class of 1966
   An Army At Dawn—the American war in North Africa, and Part I of Atkinson’s Liberation of Europe trilogy
   The Day of Battle—the war for Sicily and Italy, and Part II of Atkinson’s Liberation of Europe trilogy (not yet released)

   Posted by Jed on August 26, 2007 at 1332 hrs
   
   
   

3. Bruce Catton - Civil war historian.

   T.R. Fehrenbach - wrote an excellent study of the Korean War and really good history of Texas.

   Both gentlemen write clearly and make the subject come alive.

   Posted by Brian on August 26, 2007 at 1435 hrs
   
   
   

4. I read Atkinson’s “An Army at Dawn.”  That was very well done.  I’ll have to check out more of his work.

   Posted by Owen on August 26, 2007 at 1452 hrs
   
   
   

5. I really like David Halberstam. “The Children” is one of the best unknown (if you can call one of his books unknown) books ever written about the civil rights movement. He’s probably best known for the superb “The Best and the Brightest,” but others of his I’ve really enjoyed are “The Fifties” and “The Power Broker,” about Robert Moses and New York City.

   And of course Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on August 26, 2007 at 1550 hrs
   
   
   

6. Solzhenitsyn, Churchill, Simon Schama, Richard Brookhiser, Edward Gibbon, Suetonius, Herodotus, Orwell.  I read Hart’s “The German Generals Talk” and just found it wanting because it was hard to place his subjects in context, and I’m willing to blame the author for that.  Schama’s “Citizens” really captured the complete French Revolution pre-Napoleon.  His “History of Britain” was a light survey, but it’s a fun read.  I’m about to tackle “Rembrandt’s Eyes”.

   If you have neither the time nor the patience to read all of the above, I strongly suggest Churchill’s History of the English Speaking Peoples.  I know it’s four volumes, but it really is the essential work of the 20th century.

   BTW, you can buy all of these from Amazon.com by going through the link at my site… 

   Posted by james wigderson on August 26, 2007 at 1552 hrs
   
   
   

7. I’ve read Churchill’s “History of the English Speaking Peoples” and I agree with you that it is fantastic.  I particularly took note of the change in tone from the parts written before WWII and those written after it.

   Posted by Owen on August 26, 2007 at 1557 hrs
   
   
   

8. I have a great many that I trust, but one more than most lately is John B. Lundstrom.  He happens to live here in Wisconsin, too.

   http://preview.tinyurl.com/33kqao

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on August 26, 2007 at 1742 hrs
   
   
   

9. I like Stephen Ambrose, he did a lot to keep the World War 2 story of the average grunt, alive through his work on oral histories and his book on Lewis and Clark Undaunted Courage was outstanding.  Plus he was a pretty cool guy I had him as a prof up at Wisconsin and his visits to the Smaller TA lead groups were some of my best times in College.  Lets just say he was not shy on telling you his opinions on world leaders and military people past and present

   Sad part was I never thought to take a sharpie to class and have him sign my copy of Band of Brothers.  I will regret that forever.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on August 26, 2007 at 2229 hrs
   
   
   

10. There is not blogspace sufficient for this!  But I agree with Brian: Perhaps no historian has written so movingly as Bruce Catton in A Stillness for Appomatox—and about the death of the Confederacy, and I’m as Northerner as can be, so that was a feat!

    Barbara Tuchman is terrific on the English background of the American Revolution.  (The movie Madness of King George was not fiction.

    Joseph Lash’s Eleanor and Franklin informed me immensely about the longest-serving president ever, through Depression and war, and helps me understand many political couples since (Barbara Bush reminds me of Eleanor far more than does Hillary Clinton).

    Dozens more names could go on the list, and this is just on American history.  So I recently reread Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis, one of Wisconsin’s own, and he was so wrong on so much.  Just because his family was part of a westward movement, for him to ignore the many points of the compass from which settlers came into the Midwest (from Canada first, actually, and then from the South) was astonishing, since he previously wrote about French settlement.  But—he was young, he certainly expanded American history, and he still got so much right.  (His works are online now, for anyone else intererested in reading again what we read so long ago. . . .)

    So many more come to mind—but I also really enjoy contemporary accounts, the diaries and letters of people in their times.  A great anthology of those by settlers that I’m reading now is the reason I went back to read Turner again.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on August 26, 2007 at 2230 hrs
    
    
    

11. Speaking of Tuchman, I would recommend to Owen, “The Guns of August”. 

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guns_of_August

    Posted by james wigderson on August 27, 2007 at 0015 hrs
    
    
    

12. My favorite historian is Dave Historian.  What a guy!  Every summer we’d cookout at his home, and every winter, horse-drawn carriage rides round the countryside.  His wife Emily and three children, Matt, Dana, and Christopher are an absolute delight.  And what a tennis player!

    Yes sir, if you ask me (and you did), my favorite historian is by far, Dave Historian.  The end.

    Posted by Mr. Pelican Pants on August 27, 2007 at 1211 hrs
    
    
    

13. Mr. Pants, rumor has it your favorite Historian is actually Mrs. Emily Historian.  Do you confirm or deny the rumor?

    Posted by james wigderson on August 28, 2007 at 0148 hrs
    
    
    

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