Best military historian?

[LRB]

A host of great names here.

I don't wish to derail the thread, so I will post one that focuses on a side thought shortly (I will call it 'Who has presented history the best') and put it in Film TV and DVD as it likely is more appropriate for it's needs.

My request will be who has presented history in the most approachable fashion while maintaining the highest level of usable accuracy. This then will be able to include hosts (as opposed to editors) that might not be formal historians, but are at least capable of saying they know their history.

I call it the Carl Sagan effect (although Carl was every bit a real scientist of course). Carl likely has done more for science than most any other scientist I can think of, for making science approachable for the amateur scientist.

[skipperbob]

If you want to read about the Civil War you can't do any better than Bruce Catton! When I started reading him in the 1950's he made history come alive for me! He was not a numbers and statistics kind of writer, not deep into strategies and generals - but he made the men in the armies come alive and you felt like you were there with them! Just read his book "This Hallowed Ground" (won a Pulitzer in 1954) and it will give you gossebumps the way he describes what it felt like to be a common soldier in the war.

[Zaraath]

Two excellent books on the horse and musket era I have not seen mentioned are Jeremy Black, European Warfare 1660-1815, and John Childs' Warfare in the Seventeenth Century.

[S.P.Q.R]

For Roman history, I would pick Adrian Goldsworthy.
The Roman Army at War 100 BC - AD 200
Roman Warfare
The Fall of Carthage: The Punic Wars 265-146BC
Fields of Battle: Cannae
In the Name of Rome: The Men Who Won the Roman Empire
The Complete Roman Army
Caesar: Life of a Colossus

Ding ding ding! Here's the winner for me. Goldsworthy is fantastic.