Great Thinkers

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

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Subject: History × Ethical 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…"

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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?"

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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?"

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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."

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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…"

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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…"

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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."

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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."

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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…"

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