[SebCross]

(Original post by Norton1)
I believe 'Hitler' is actually abridged from 'Hubris' and 'Nemesis', so that might partly be the problem.

Yes, that's right.

[Clessus]

1. Marko Attila Hoare ( Yugoslavia ) - How Bosnia Armed
2. Josip Glaurdic ( Yugoslavia ) - The Hour of Europe
3. Brendan Simms ( Yugoslavia ) - Unfinest Hour, Britain and the Destruction of Bosnia
4. Tim Judah ( Yugoslavia ) - Kosovo, What Everyone Needs to Know
4. Ian Kershaw ( of course ) - Hitler, The Germans, and the Final Solution
5. Robert Kee ( Ireland ) - The Green Flag
6. Diarmaid Ferriter ( Ireland ) - Judging Dev
7. Tim Coogan ( Ireland, though his views are pretty much the opposite of Ferriter's) - De Valera: long fellow, long shadow
8. Norman Finkelstein ( Israel ) - Did a good demolition job on that old fraud and mountebank Joan Peters
9. Benny Morris ( Israel ) - The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947—1949
10. Justin McCarthy ( Ottoman Empire, he remains a serious professional historian, despite his objectionable views on the Armenian Genocide) - Death and Exile

[Historophilia]

(Original post by SebCross)
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.

Completely agree with you about the quality of Figes' writing.

But wasn't that Sebag Montefiore that wrote about Jerusalem? Figes's most recent book was about the Crimea I think (I have it but haven't got round to reading it yet).

[Hewitt]

Neil Ferguson - He talk's a lot of sense.

[SebCross]

(Original post by Historophilia)
Completely agree with you about the quality of Figes' writing.

But wasn't that Sebag Montefiore that wrote about Jerusalem? Figes's most recent book was about the Crimea I think (I have it but haven't got round to reading it yet).

Yes, yes - I seem to have confused historians there! My bad! It was indeed Sebag Montefiore who wrote about Jerusalem. I'll have to check out that recent Figes book - I'm only familiar with his older work. Anybody on the forum planning to remain in academic history as a career (i.e. be an academic)?

[Historophilia]

(Original post by SebCross)
Yes, yes - I seem to have confused historians there! My bad! It was indeed Sebag Montefiore who wrote about Jerusalem. I'll have to check out that recent Figes book - I'm only familiar with his older work. Anybody on the forum planning to remain in academic history as a career (i.e. be an academic)?

Well they do both write about Russia

And as to staying in academic History? Oh lord I don't know, part of me wants to (but then part of me also wants to be prime minister and also wants to run my own business and also wants to climb the corporate ladder) but it's so tough getting into academia and to make a living from it. I also feel that academics tend to live in a strange little bubble of their own and don't really have contact with the real world and i'm not sure I could cope with that.

But then I would love to write History books, one day I swear I will write my book on the impact of religion on Russian history and how it has helped shape it's development. It shall be called "The Third Rome" and it will be awesome. But then I also want to write a history of the Finno-Russian war which will be called "The Winter War" and also a book about Christianity under Islam in Spain, Africa and the Near East going from the expansion of Islam after the death of Muhammed up to the present day...

Ah so much to do so little time...

[Teofilo]

(Original post by Historophilia)
But then I would love to write History books, one day I swear I will write my book on the impact of religion on Russian history and how it has helped shape it's development. It shall be called "The Third Rome" and it will be awesome.

Religion isn't really my thing at all (nor is Russia...), but have you read Lynne Viola's Peasant Rebels Under Stalin? About the interactions between different forms of rebellion religion, folk religion, and traditions. Really good book.

[lima1]

Personally, I enjoy Starkey because he is contraversial at times and he puts across an interesting debate. I am currently reading work by John O'Farrell, which although brief is very amusing to say the least!

[Off To The Races]

Ben Walsh. His modern world history GCSE textbook was a readgasm. I didn't return my copy to school after my exam as it was too enjoyable.

[AdvanceAndVanquish]

My first favourite was G.R. Elton. David Cannadine is also a lot of fun.

(Original post by Clessus)
8. Illan Pappe ( Israel ) - The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

Pappe doesn't belong on a list of historians, much less the best ones.

[Captain Hindsight]

Gar Alperovitz

[Clessus]

(Original post by AdvanceAndVanquish)
My first favourite was G.R. Elton. David Cannadine is also a lot of fun.




Pappe doesn't belong on a list of historians, much less the best ones.

Hehe, perhaps, Nur Masalha and Finkelstein are probably better and are better respected. Still, I stand by all my other choices. Strange that you make no mention of Justin McCarthy, who is much more controvertial.

[sufyan_123]

Sir Steven Runciman by a country mile for me

[NapoleonDynamite]

Anyone else like Roger Mortimer ?

[AdvanceAndVanquish]

(Original post by Clessus)
Hehe, perhaps, Nur Masalha and Finkelstein are probably better and are better respected. Still, I stand by all my other choices. Strange that you make no mention of Justin McCarthy, who is much more controvertial.

I haven't heard of him before but will look him up.

[Clessus]

(Original post by AdvanceAndVanquish)
I haven't heard of him before but will look him up.

Apologies, I thought you had

Anyway, while I agree that there are legitimate criticisms that one can make of Pappe's methedology, most of the criticism of Finkelstein have been knee-jerk claims of "anti-semitism" as well as the rediculious claim that he is a holocaust denier.

[AdvanceAndVanquish]

(Original post by Clessus)
Apologies, I thought you had

Anyway, while I agree that there are legitimate criticisms that one can make of Pappe's methedology, most of the criticism of Finkelstein have been knee-jerk claims of "anti-semitism" as well as the rediculious claim that he is a holocaust denier.

I'm not about to get into it about Finklestein but my foremost problem with Pappe, even before getting into specific examples of questionable claims, is that he explicitly disavowed and indeed ridiculed the concept of "sticking to facts and 'the truth'" in reconstructing the past (from the intro to A History of Modern Palestine). That to me is what makes him not a historian, as opposed to merely a bad historian.

[Clessus]

(Original post by AdvanceAndVanquish)
I'm not about to get into it about Finklestein but my foremost problem with Pappe, even before getting into specific examples of questionable claims, is that he explicitly disavowed and indeed ridiculed the concept of "sticking to facts and 'the truth'" in reconstructing the past (from the intro to A History of Modern Palestine). That to me is what makes him not a historian, as opposed to merely a bad historian.

True, perhaps i'll remove my endorsement of him.

[Historophilia]

(Original post by Teofilo)
Religion isn't really my thing at all (nor is Russia...), but have you read Lynne Viola's Peasant Rebels Under Stalin? About the interactions between different forms of rebellion religion, folk religion, and traditions. Really good book.

Aha i'm a bit niche hipster history!

No I haven't, that sounds an interesting book though, very much my kind of history by the way your describe it!

[RollandGarros]

Sir Adolf Hitler.