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Great Historians (Europe, Canada, and the U.S.)

Based on the clue, please try to name the historian
For the purposes of this quiz, "historian" is a word preferably reserved for people born in the modern period onwards. Individuals that studied and/or wrote about the past before this timeframe are hereby referred to as "thinkers", due to some complex issues regarding their categorisation as "historians" per se.
It is worth noting that, although some of the people featured in this quiz might not be considered strictly "British", "French", "German", etc., most of them were born, spent a significant portion of their lives, and/or had a strong multifaceted connection with the territory corresponding to these modern-day states. Additionally, in terms of vernacular affinity, it could be reasonably assumed that they wrote primarily (more often than not exclusively) in the language(s) mainly spoken in such countries (including archaic variations). All things considered, while mentioning their supposed nationalities could be understandably debatable, it would also be justified to a certain degree.
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VVerther
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Last updated: July 19, 2025
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First submittedJuly 26, 2017
Times taken118
Average score23.1%
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Clue
Historian
Contemporary Italian historian, whose "The Cheese and the Worms" is an undisputed cardinal work in the field of 'microhistory'
Carlo Ginzburg
19th-century German intellectual, Nobel Prize laureate and author of the multi-volume "A History of Rome"
Theodor Mommsen
Ancient Greece thinker who reported on the Greco-Persian Wars (499 BCE - 449 BCE), often referred to as the "Father of History"
Herodotus
Contemporary British historian specialised in Ancient Rome, praised for challenging traditional views on Roman culture, gender, and politics
Mary Beard
A leading figure of the Annales 2nd generation, who emphasised the role of large-scale socioeconomic structures in the understanding of history
Fernand Braudel
Austrian historian regarded by some as the first preeminent scholar of the Holocaust, whose "The Destruction of the European Jews" is widely considered a seminal study on the topic
Raul Hilberg
Prominent 20th-century British intellectual, author of the massive 12-volume "A Study of History"
Arnold J. Toynbee
Contemporary British intellectual who espouses a feminist point of view in the examination of themes such as 'gender', 'class', 'race', and 'empire'
Catherine Hall
19th-century German historian whose work on Alexander the Great inspired a new school of thought focused on 'great men' and how their actions shaped the past
Johann Gustav Droysen
Roman Empire thinker whose monumental "Ab Urbe Condita" covered almost 1,000 years of history, from the earliest legends of Rome through the reign of Augustus
Titus Livius | Livy
An Annales School 4th generation intellectual, specialised in the history of books, publishing, and reading
Roger Chartier
20th-century British economic historian and medievalist who strived to develop a social history of medieval people, particularly women
Eileen Power
19th-century German philosopher, economist, political theorist, sociologist, journalist, and revolutionary, acclaimed among historians for his "18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon"
Karl Marx
Greek thinker of the Hellenistic period who most notably reported on the Punic Wars (264 BCE - 146 BCE) and on Rome's growing influence over the Mediterranean
Polybius
Co-founder of the Annales School, this French medievalist joined the Resistance during World War II and was executed by the Nazis in 1944
Marc Bloch
20th-century Austro-American intellectual who made relevant contributions to the development of the academic field of 'women's history'
Gerda Lerner
Irish historian of paramount importance to the 'Late Antiquity' field, generally credited as its inventor
Peter Brown
Voguish 20th-century British Marxist historian, widely acclaimed for his trilogy concerning the 'long 19th century'
Eric Hobsbawm
German philosopher, cultural critic, and essayist that perished during World War II; an eclectic thinker whose work integrated elements of German idealism, post-Kantianism, Western Marxism and Jewish mysticism
Walter Benjamin
Contemporary American-Canadian historian best known for "The Return of Martin Guerre", considered to be one of the earliest works of 'microhistory'
Natalie Zemon Davis
Ancient Greece thinker and general who reported on the Second Peloponnesian War (431 BCE - 404 BCE)
Thucydides
19th-century French historian, whose monumental "Histoire de France" covered more than 1,000 years of history, from the early Frankish period to the Revolution of 1789
Jules Michelet
19th-century German historian often credited as the founder of modern source-based history, focusing on archival research and the analysis of historical documents
Leopold von Ranke
Contemporary American historian specialised in British colonial rule in Africa, best known for proposing a fresh perspective on the Mau Mau rebellion
Caroline Elkins
18th-century British intellectual and Member of Parliament, author of the formidable "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"
Edward Gibbon
Annales School 3rd generation prominent medievalist and leading figure of the 'New History' movement
Jacques Le Goff
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2 Comments
panscedar
+2
Level 67
Jul 26, 2017
It's a long time since my history degree....
VVerther
+1
Level 83
Jun 11, 2025
Mine as well hahaha, but perhaps the quiz could be of some help in inspiring you to revisit it?
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