# History Buffs - who are your favourite authors? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 19, 2008, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-who-are-your-favourite-authors/477959 "2008-12-19T19:21:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-who-are-your-favourite-authors/477959/1 "2008-12-19T19:21:18Z")
A sister thread to [History Buffs, what do you like to study most?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=12) That thread made me think that there were certain authors who could write on any topic they wished and I would still find it interesting. Might be more appropriate for Cafe Society, but I thought I’d start here and see how it does. Ye Mods, move as ye wish. In no particular order and without shame or sneering, we proceed - [Barbara Tuchman](http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_0_10?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=barbara+tuchman&sprefix=barbara+tu) [Eugen Weber](http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=eugen+weber&x=17&y=15) [Thomas Cahill](http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_ss_b_0_8?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=thomas+cahill&sprefix=thomas+c) [Alfred Cobban](http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=cobban+alfred&x=0&y=0) [Samuel Noah Kramer](http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=samuel+noah+kramer&x=0&y=0) And you, fellow Dopers - any favourites authors or favourite series? ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-who-are-your-favourite-authors/477959/2 "2008-12-19T19:45:58Z")
Sir Ronald Syme Sir James Frazer (what? I guess I like knights.) Mary Beard Fergus Millar John Matthews Lily Ross Taylor And in the ancient vein: Herodotus Sallust ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-who-are-your-favourite-authors/477959/3 "2008-12-19T20:01:24Z")
I’m counting biographies as history and not distinguishing twixt scholarly and popular histories. CIVIL WAR Shelby Foote Doris Kearns Goodwin (Lincoln bios mainly) James McPherson (though I wish he’d write more about the western theaters) AMERICAN- General Irving Stone (not his novels but his non-fiction- [Men to Match My Mountains](http://www.amazon.com/Men-Match-Mountains-Irving-Stone/dp/042510544X)is probably my favorite of his books) David McCullough Stephen Ambrose (yeah, I know, plagiarist- but still good and at least most of it had to have been his) Robert Leckie (he wrote very good one volume popular histories of U.S. wars and the World Wars) Dee Brown Stephanie Coontz (_The Way We Never Were_ is particularly great) Fawn Brodie (but with a big caveat: some of her conclusions are speculative at best, but her homework was excellent) WORLD John Julius Norwich (his Byzantium trilogy is among my favorite books on medieval history) John Toland (non-fiction only- his fiction was HORRIBLE) Robert K. Massie (the father- author of _Nicholas & Alexandra_ and _Dreadnought_; his son, R.K. Jr.\*, is also an author) Dava Sobel (_Longtitude_, _Galileo’s Daughter_) Karen Armstrong (very readable histories on religion) James Burke (bk4 _Connections_ and _Day the Universe Changed_- though another caveat on not accepting his uncited statements at face value) \*Some trivia about Robert K. Massie, Jr.: he was born with hemophilia which inspired his father’s fascination with Nicholas & Alexandra and how their hemophiliac son changed history. Massie Jr. has been living with HIV (received through transfusion) for more than 25 years, one of if not the oldest cases of the illness for the person to still be living. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-buffs-who-are-your-favourite-authors/477959/4 "2008-12-19T20:08:22Z")
I guess I am a populist: David McCullough H.G. Wells (Especially The Outline of History) Barbara Tuchman