historian

/hɪˈstɔriən/

/hɪsˈtɔriən/

Other forms: historians

A historian is someone who is an authority on history. Your American History textbook was written by a historian.

If you've ever taken a history class, chances are it was taught by a historian — someone who is an expert on history. You don't get to be a historian overnight; most historians have studied history for years and have a Master's or Ph.D. in history. If you want an informed opinion on past elections, wars, disasters, and trends, talk to a historian or read a book by one. Historians are experts on the past.

Definitions of historian

1. noun

   a person who is an authority on history and who studies it and writes about it
   synonyms: historiographer

   examples:

   Hannah Arendt

   United States historian and political philosopher (born in Germany) (1906-1975)

   the Venerable Bede

   (Roman Catholic Church) English monk and scholar (672-735)

   Thomas Carlyle

   Scottish historian who wrote about the French Revolution (1795-1881)

   William James Durant

   United States historian (1885-1981)

   Eusebius of Caesarea

   Christian bishop of Caesarea in Palestine; a church historian and a leading early Christian exegete (circa 270-340)

   John Hope Franklin

   United States historian noted for studies of Black American history (born in 1915)

   Samuel Rawson Gardiner

   British historian remembered for his ten-volume history of England (1829-1902)

   Edward Gibbon

   English historian best known for his history of the Roman Empire (1737-1794)

   Herodotus

   the ancient Greek known as the father of history; his accounts of the wars between the Greeks and Persians are the first known examples of historical writing (485-425 BC)

   Joseph ben Matthias

   Jewish general who led the revolt of the Jews against the Romans and then wrote a history of those events (37-100)

   John Knox

   Scottish theologian who founded Presbyterianism in Scotland and wrote a history of the Reformation in Scotland (1514-1572)

   Titus Livius

   Roman historian whose history of Rome filled 142 volumes (of which only 35 survive) including the earliest history of the war with Hannibal (59 BC to AD 17)

   Thomas Babington Macaulay

   English historian noted for his history of England (1800-1859)

   Alfred Thayer Mahan

   United States naval officer and historian (1840-1914)

   Frederic William Maitland

   English historian noted for his works on the history of English law (1850-1906)

   John Bach McMaster

   United States historian who wrote a nine volume history of the people of the United States (1852-1932)

   Theodor Mommsen

   German historian noted for his history of Rome (1817-1903)

   Barthold George Niebuhr

   German historian noted for his critical approach to sources and for his history of Rome (1776-1831)

   Cyril Northcote Parkinson

   British historian noted for ridicule of bureaucracies (1909-1993)

   James Harvey Robinson

   United States historian who stressed the importance of intellectual and social events for the course of history (1863-1936)

   Saxo Grammaticus

   Danish historian who chronicled the history of Denmark (including the legend of Hamlet) (1150?-1220?)

   Arthur Meier Schlesinger

   United States historian (1888-1965)

   Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr.

   United States historian and advisor to President Kennedy (born in 1917)

   William Stubbs

   English historian noted for his constitutional history of medieval England (1825-1901)

   Publius Cornelius Tacitus

   Roman historian who wrote major works on the history of the Roman Empire (56-120)

   Thucydides

   ancient Greek historian remembered for his history of the Peloponnesian War (460-395 BC)

   Arnold Joseph Toynbee

   English historian who studied the rise and fall of civilizations looking for cyclical patterns (1889-1975)

   Sir George Otto Trevelyan

   English historian who wrote a history of the American revolution and a biography of his uncle Lord Macaulay (1838-1928)

   George Macaulay Trevelyan

   English historian and son of Sir George Otto Trevelyan whose works include a social history of England and a biography of Garibaldi (1876-1962)

   Barbara Wertheim Tuchman

   United States historian (1912-1989)

   Frederick Jackson Turner

   United States historian who stressed the role of the western frontier in American history (1861-1951)

   Sir Paul Gavrilovich Vinogradoff

   British historian (born in Russia) (1854-1925)

   Fourth Earl of Orford

   English writer and historian; son of Sir Robert Walpole (1717-1797)

   Eliezer Wiesel

   United States writer (born in Romania) who survived Nazi concentration camps and is dedicated to keeping alive the memory of the Holocaust (born in 1928)

   Comer Vann Woodward

   United States historian (1908-1999)

   Xenophon

   Greek general and historian; student of Socrates (430-355 BC)

   types:

   annalist

   a historian who writes annals

   art historian

   a historian of art

   chronicler

   someone who records past events in the order that they happened

   type of:

   bookman, scholar, scholarly person, student

   a learned person (especially in the humanities); someone who by long study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines