# Who is your favorite Popular Historian? And who do you dislike? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 1, 2014, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-popular-historian-and-who-do-you-dislike/694537 "2014-08-01T00:03:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2014, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-popular-historian-and-who-do-you-dislike/694537/21 "2014-08-02T00:32:01Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Simon Schama. His 3-part _History of Britain_ is terrific, as is his book on the French Revolution, _Citizens_. He’s just such a damn good writer. That’s presumably a typo. Schama’s series has 15 parts not 3. But it is an excellent series (and is posted on You Tube). Schama’s _Power of Art_ documentary series is also very good, although less history based. eta: And then I belatedly realized you’re talking about the book series not the television series. The books were written as a companion work to a BBC series. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2014, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-popular-historian-and-who-do-you-dislike/694537/22 "2014-08-02T01:15:06Z")
Robert Caro (mentioned above). Although I suppose he’s more of a biographer than a historian. Steven Runciman (now deceased). His three-volume history of the Crusades is amazing. He was a really, really good writer, in addition to being a serious historian. He mostly wrote about Byzantium and events that affected Byzantium, but that included, obviously, the Crusades, and Sicily. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2014, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-popular-historian-and-who-do-you-dislike/694537/23 "2014-08-02T01:40:01Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Steven Runciman (now deceased). His three-volume history of the Crusades is amazing. He was a really, really good writer, in addition to being a serious historian. He mostly wrote about Byzantium and events that affected Byzantium, but that included, obviously, the Crusades, and Sicily. Another interesting general history of the Crusades is _The Crusades Through Arab Eyes_ by Amin Maalouf. I think most histories that Americans and Europeans read treat the Crusades from a western viewpoint. They start in Europe, talk about the background of Urban’s pronouncement, and then follow the Crusaders to the Holy Lands. Maalouf’s book tells the story from a different viewpoint. He presents it from the point of view of the people in the Holy Lands who suddenly found themselves being invaded by foreign barbarians. ---
**Author:** ![Cognoscant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Cognoscant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cognoscant)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2014, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-popular-historian-and-who-do-you-dislike/694537/24 "2014-08-02T01:51:44Z")
Niall Ferguson. I knew him before his superstardom… I’m not a fan of my ex-wife’s work, but not for any academic reasons, you understand. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2014, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-popular-historian-and-who-do-you-dislike/694537/25 "2014-08-02T02:01:00Z")
Shelby Foote and the Civil War ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2014, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-popular-historian-and-who-do-you-dislike/694537/26 "2014-08-02T02:17:44Z")
David McCullough, Shelby Foote and Jared Diamond are all good writers and have a good televised presence too. if i would have to select a singular favorite it would be David McCullough. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2014, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-popular-historian-and-who-do-you-dislike/694537/27 "2014-08-02T02:19:54Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Another interesting general history of the Crusades is _The Crusades Through Arab Eyes_ by Amin Maalouf. I think most histories that Americans and Europeans read treat the Crusades from a western viewpoint. They start in Europe, talk about the background of Urban’s pronouncement, and then follow the Crusaders to the Holy Lands. > > Maalouf’s book tells the story from a different viewpoint. He presents it from the point of view of the people in the Holy Lands who suddenly found themselves being invaded by foreign barbarians. Right! I forgot that. I have a copy at home – I think it’s published by Penguin. One of these days I’m going to have to get around to reading it. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2014, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-popular-historian-and-who-do-you-dislike/694537/28 "2014-08-02T03:59:17Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > eta: And then I belatedly realized you’re talking about the book series not the television series. The books were written as a companion work to a BBC series. Books, TV–they’re all good. Caught my wife watching a Schama documentary and thought for a moment, “Good. She’s an English credit away from an Art History degree and loves to disagree with experts,” but it was something about the Jews. By the way, nobody knows a documentary about 15th Century Italian altarpieces, do you? She’d love to disagree with that. However, she don’t disagree with nuns about nuthin’, so Sister Wendy is right out. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2014, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-popular-historian-and-who-do-you-dislike/694537/29 "2014-08-02T04:32:16Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Jared Diamond. I love “Guns, Germs and Steel”. Tried reading it, but it was all stuff I already knew and assumed was common knowledge and his theory seemed so obvious as to be boring. In retrospect it might have just been a topic I’ve long followed and thought about, not stuff everybody else knows. Okay, how about Michael Wood? His books are more complete than his shows. And John Romer for his Egypt and Bible stuff. And I have to plug [Adrienne Mayor](http://www.amazon.com/Adrienne-Mayor/e/B001HCZZ0A) because she contacted me after my [booby trap](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2217/were-ancient-tombs-really-booby-trapped) staff report. I think she thought I was Cecil. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2014, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-popular-historian-and-who-do-you-dislike/694537/30 "2014-08-02T04:47:30Z")
David McCullough. I’ll bet he is an awesome Grandpa. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2014, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-popular-historian-and-who-do-you-dislike/694537/31 "2014-08-02T05:56:54Z")
Runciman is great, I’ve read his “The Medieval Manichee.” Eric Hobsbawm is awesome as well, though as a lifelong communist his political allegiances are going to be different than most Americans. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2014, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-popular-historian-and-who-do-you-dislike/694537/32 "2014-08-02T06:13:16Z")
Isaac Asimov. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-your-favorite-popular-historian-and-who-do-you-dislike/694537.md?page=1)