Some famous historians include:
* Herodotus (c. 484 – 425 BCE): often referred to as the "father of history", he wrote about the Greco-Persian Wars.
* Thucydides (c. 460 – c. 395 BCE): known for his rigorous and analytical approach to history and wrote about the Peloponnesian War.
* Polybius (c. 200 – c. 120 BCE): a Greek historian who wrote about the rise of the Roman Empire.
* Sima Qian (c. 145–86 BCE): a Chinese historian considered the father of Chinese historiography, he wrote the Records of the Grand Historian.
* Josephus (c. 37–100 CE): a Jewish-Roman historian who wrote extensively about Jewish history in his works, including The Jewish War and Antiquities of the Jews.
* Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406): a Muslim Arab historian who wrote extensively about sociology and historiography, considered the father of sociology and the modern philosophy of history.
* Edward Gibbon (1737–1794): an English historian whose work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is considered one of the great works of historiography.
* Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886): a German historian known for his emphasis on scientific and archival-based research in historical writing.
* Barbara Tuchman (1912–1989): an American historian whose popular and insightful books on historical topics such as The Guns of August earned her the Pulitzer Prize.
* Yuval Noah Harari (1976–): an Israeli historian and philosopher who writes about world history and the impact of technology on society, his works like Sapiens and Homo Deus have gained significant attention.