Great Thinkers

Meet the great minds whose ideas have shaped the world — philosophers, scientists, artists, leaders, and revolutionaries whose thinking still matters today.

Filter by subject area

Biology 5 Chemistry 6 Physics 5 Mathematics 14 Medicine & Health 7 Technology & Engineering 7 Psychology 2

Philosophy 48 History 14 Literature 40 Language & Linguistics 5 Arts 11

Anthropology & Culture 7 Sociology 7 Religion 12 Education 8 Politics 20

Law 10 Economics 8 Business & Management 7

Subject: History × Critical thinking ×

1083 - c. 1153 · Byzantine Empire (Constantinople, modern Istanbul)

Anna Komnene was a Byzantine princess and historian. The Byzantine Empire was the eastern continuation of the Roman Empire. It survived for a thousand years…

Research skills Creative expression Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1

"Time, in its irresistible and ceaseless flow, carries off and submerges all that has come into being and plunges it…"

Meet this Thinker →

c. 45-c. 117 CE · China (Han dynasty)

Ban Zhao was a Chinese historian, poet, and teacher of the Eastern Han dynasty. She is the first known woman historian of China. She was…

Research skills Creative expression Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity +1

"Yet only to teach men and not to teach women — is this not ignoring the essential relationship between them?"

Meet this Thinker →

1901-1989 · Trinidad and Tobago

Cyril Lionel Robert James was a Trinidadian historian, political thinker, novelist, and cricket writer. He is one of the most important intellectuals the Caribbean has…

Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking Creative expression +1

"What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?"

Meet this Thinker →

Cheikh Anta Diop

1923–1986 · Senegal

Cheikh Anta Diop (1923–1986) was a Senegalese historian, anthropologist, physicist, and political thinker — one of the most wide-ranging and controversial African intellectuals of the…

Critical thinking Critical literacy Intercultural competence Resilience

"The African who has understood us is the one who, after reading our works, feels that a new element has…"

Meet this Thinker →

1924-1993 · England, United Kingdom

E.P. Thompson (1924-1993) was a British historian, socialist activist, and peace campaigner. His full name was Edward Palmer Thompson. He was born in Oxford into…

Research skills Critical thinking Citizenship Cultural heritage and identity +1

"I am seeking to rescue the poor stockinger, the Luddite cropper, the obsolete hand-loom weaver, the utopian artisan and even…"

Meet this Thinker →

1917 - 2012 · Egypt / Austria / United Kingdom

Eric Hobsbawm was a British historian and one of the most influential historians of the 20th century. He wrote about the rise of capitalism, the…

Research skills Critical thinking Creative expression Ethical thinking +1

"The dustbin of history is humanity's largest receptacle."

Meet this Thinker →

1922-2010 · United States

Howard Zinn (1922-2010) was an American historian, playwright, and activist. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish immigrant parents who worked in factories,…

Critical thinking Citizenship Research skills Critical literacy +1

"I thought it important to put back in the historical record the countless struggles of ordinary people who fought against…"

Meet this Thinker →

1332-1406 · Tunisia, North Africa

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) was a North African Muslim scholar, historian, and thinker. He was born in Tunis, in what is now Tunisia, to a family…

Systems thinking Critical thinking Research skills Civic media and democracy +1

"History is information about human social organisation, which itself is identical with world civilisation. It deals with such conditions affecting…"

Meet this Thinker →

Natalie Zemon Davis

1928-present · United States / Canada

Natalie Zemon Davis (born 1928) is an American-Canadian historian. She was born in Detroit, Michigan, into a Jewish family, and studied history at Smith College,…

Research skills Critical thinking Storytelling and narrative Cultural heritage and identity +1

"What I offer you is in part my invention, but held tightly in check by the voices of the past."

Meet this Thinker →

c. 145 BCE - c. 86 BCE · Han China (modern Shaanxi province)

Sima Qian was a Chinese historian and writer. He lived from around 145 BCE to about 86 BCE, during the Western Han dynasty. He is…

Research skills Critical thinking Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity +1

"I have committed myself to writing the history of all that has happened from the time of the Yellow Emperor…"

Meet this Thinker →

1969 - present · United States

Timothy Snyder is an American historian. He is one of the most influential contemporary historians of Eastern Europe and 20th-century atrocity. He has also become…

Research skills Ethical thinking Critical thinking Creative expression +1

"Do not obey in advance."

Meet this Thinker →

1948 - 2010 · United Kingdom (later United States)

Tony Judt was a British-American historian. He was one of the most important historians of postwar Europe and a sharp public intellectual. His massive 2005…

Research skills Critical thinking Ethical thinking Creative expression +1

"Something is profoundly wrong with the way we live today."

Meet this Thinker →

Toussaint Louverture

c. 1743-1803 · Haiti (Saint-Domingue)

Toussaint Louverture was the main leader of the Haitian Revolution. This was the only successful slave revolt in modern history. It turned a French slave…

Critical thinking Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Problem solving +1

"In overthrowing me, you have cut down in Saint-Domingue only the trunk of the tree of liberty. It will spring…"

Meet this Thinker →

1942-1980 · Guyana, Caribbean / South America

Walter Rodney (1942-1980) was a Guyanese historian, political thinker, and activist. He was born in Georgetown, Guyana, then a British colony in South America, and…

Systems thinking Citizenship Civic media and democracy Financial literacy +1

"African development is possible only on the basis of a radical break with the international capitalist system, which has been…"

Meet this Thinker →