Favourite historian?

I agree with whoever said Orlando Figes. I ended up going back to him quite a few times when writing uni essays.

Special mention to John Merriman though, purely because he has a belting combover and he called Peter the Great "dude" in his online lectures. What a guy :P

Reply 21

Mazzini

16

Original post by Historiana

and some Niall Ferguson (although, his attempt to say imperialism was justified because those colonies wouldn't have reached modernity without European influences, is hard to swallow and verging on racist. His Pity of War book is interesting though).

He is a far-right eurosceptic, what did you expect? :tongue:

E.P. Thompson.

Herodotus

For WW2 histories, Anthony Beevor takes some beating - Stalingrad is a staggering book, emotionally and intellectually dazzling and harrowing. His new book on Normandy is out. Max Hastings is very good too.

Kershaw is getting a lot of plaudits and he is excellent - I am about 1/3 through Hitler and finding it excellent of course, but I do sometimes feel he is a little too sweeping, he seems to gloss over events quickly. I have reached the Night of the Long Knives and there is relatively little detail to my mind - I would have found the small details of what Hitler got up to interesting. However, it may be that Kershaw has been so ruthless in separating known facts from rumour, speculation and the downright made-up that what is left is sometimes a little dry.

Reply 25

fifi*

6

I like Shelby Foote, because his research on the american civil war was so extensive and he's an excellent writer

Reply 26

katetaylor

13

Montefiore is a good call. His book on Stalin was fantastic. David Holloway is also really good on Stalin/The Arms Race if you are interested.

I also really liked Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain. It was interestingly written and he synthesises concepts really well. It's very accessible.

Reply 27

ChemicalBond

16

Alison Weir is fantastic for medieval and Tudor history- I have a signed copy of her Mary Boleyn book, and I've read them all. She's also written four fiction books which are just as brilliant. :smile:

Reply 28

Gthreadgold

11

Ian Kershaw, Alison Weir, Simon Sebag, David Starkey.

Reply 29

Historiana

14

Original post by Mazzini

He is a far-right eurosceptic, what did you expect? :tongue:

I'm not sure Ferguson can be described as eurosceptic: he advocates the power of European influence in that book.... I'm euroskeptic - against the EU and don't believe a general European influence is always a good thing.

But, I'm a right-wing Libertarian (completely socially liberal, non-interventionist and follower of the austrian school of economics) so perhaps with that background it's no wonder I can't swallow Fergusons' stuff completely.

Reply 30

TheMagicRat

15

David McCullough. I adore, Truman, John Adams and 1776.

Reply 31

SebCross

14

Original post by Historophilia

He appears to have gone off his trolley but some of my favourite books are by Orlando Figes.

And Simon Sebag Montefiore is excellent as well.

William H. McNeill is also brilliant.

Yes, Figes seems to have diverted away from his specialism somewhat with his 2011 work on Jerusalem, but Natasha's Dance is such a wonderful book. He's a fabulous writer. Other than that, I enjoyed immensely Christopher Clark's Iron Kingdom: The Rise & Downfall of Prussia 1600-1947 (2006), and am currently reading Getty & Naumov's The Road to Terror.

Favourite historian ever? Probably G.M. Trevelyan, or Antony Beevor if we're obliged to choose from more modern historians.

Bede & Norman Davies

Original post by Historiana

I'm not sure Ferguson can be described as eurosceptic: he advocates the power of European influence in that book.... I'm euroskeptic - against the EU and don't believe a general European influence is always a good thing.

But, I'm a right-wing Libertarian (completely socially liberal, non-interventionist and follower of the austrian school of economics) so perhaps with that background it's no wonder I can't swallow Fergusons' stuff completely.

Ferguson is, in my view, a much misunderstood historian. People take the soundbites they pick up from his radio lectures and TV documentaries and seem to brand him as a sort of hyper-right-wing ghoul tugging at the heartstrings of traditional Republicanism in the U.S. (Funny how up until the late 1920s the Republican Party was the more socially and economically liberal political party, mind you.) Whilst it's true that his books, particularly The Ascent of Money, advocate what is at its core pretty right-wing fiscal policy, he is also quick to point out there is never any 'silver bullet' in right-wing monetary policy. Having said that, he does tend to rely upon the 'apologist' stance as his deus ex machina for the biggest debates in twentieth century history...

Reply 34

SebCross

14

Original post by Muscovite

Simon Sebag-Montifiore; Robert Service and Orlando Figes are mine; but I actually like Andrew Marr's books a lot even though he's strictly speaking a journalist

Quite so: Robert Service is a fine historian indeed. Hopefully I will have the privilege to be taught by him in a couple of term's time, though we shall see...

Reply 35

SebCross

14

Original post by SebCross

Ferguson is, in my view, a much misunderstood historian. People take the soundbites they pick up from his radio lectures and TV documentaries and seem to brand him as a sort of hyper-right-wing ghoul tugging at the heartstrings of traditional Republicanism in the U.S. (Funny how up until the late 1920s the Republican Party was the more socially and economically liberal political party, mind you.) Whilst it's true that his books, particularly The Ascent of Money, advocate what is at its core pretty right-wing fiscal policy, he is also quick to point out there is never any 'silver bullet' in right-wing monetary policy. Having said that, he does tend to rely upon the 'apologist' stance as his deus ex machina for the biggest debates in twentieth century history...

Didn't know this font size was so big. Haha.

Reply 36

TheMagicRat

15

Original post by SebCross

Didn't know this font size was so big. Haha.

I thought you'd done it on purpose for added effect.

Reply 37

Norton1

18

Original post by Fires

For WW2 histories, Anthony Beevor takes some beating - Stalingrad is a staggering book, emotionally and intellectually dazzling and harrowing. His new book on Normandy is out. Max Hastings is very good too.

Kershaw is getting a lot of plaudits and he is excellent - I am about 1/3 through Hitler and finding it excellent of course, but I do sometimes feel he is a little too sweeping, he seems to gloss over events quickly. I have reached the Night of the Long Knives and there is relatively little detail to my mind - I would have found the small details of what Hitler got up to interesting. However, it may be that Kershaw has been so ruthless in separating known facts from rumour, speculation and the downright made-up that what is left is sometimes a little dry.

I believe 'Hitler' is actually abridged from 'Hubris' and 'Nemesis', so that might partly be the problem.

Reply 38

SebCross

14

Original post by TheMagicRat

I thought you'd done it on purpose for added effect.

LOL I really should have thought of that. Unfortunately though, no, I did not. I'm also going to give a shout out here to economic historian Paul Kennedy.

Reply 39

SebCross

14

Original post by Fires

For WW2 histories, Anthony Beevor takes some beating - Stalingrad is a staggering book, emotionally and intellectually dazzling and harrowing. His new book on Normandy is out. Max Hastings is very good too.

Kershaw is getting a lot of plaudits and he is excellent - I am about 1/3 through Hitler and finding it excellent of course, but I do sometimes feel he is a little too sweeping, he seems to gloss over events quickly. I have reached the Night of the Long Knives and there is relatively little detail to my mind - I would have found the small details of what Hitler got up to interesting. However, it may be that Kershaw has been so ruthless in separating known facts from rumour, speculation and the downright made-up that what is left is sometimes a little dry.

Actually Beevor's new (summer 2012) volume in on WWII and is aptly titled The Second World War. It's quasi-orgasmic, I tell you. Just as evocative, broad and harrowing as either Stalingrad or Berlin. I finished that a week ago and am currently planning on reading The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-39 once I've finished what I'm reading at the moment.

You are right about Kershaw: I saw him lecture at The Chalke Valley History Festival last month, and he discussed the difficulties in sieving out rumour and speculation from hard facts. His latest book, The End, is pure genius.

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