I pretty much agree with your listing of
historians--I'd throw in A.J.P. Taylor for sure and consider Said
to be perhaps more fringe. Either Jr. or Sr. of the
Schlesingers are perfectly legit though. For many years The
Age of Jackson was the canonical work in the field
(albeit less so now--but you still have to read it). For
another "historian" who weirdly comes up as tossup
material (at least 3 times that I've seen), see questions
on Howard Zinn. I'm not quite exactly sure why--is
it the Good Will Hunting thing? All he's written was
a college/high school level survey text of American
history from a leftist perspective--there was certainly
nothing revolutionary about it--from serious historians
see the works of Jesse Lemisch and William Appleman
Williams for examples. Also, why does Tuchman show up so
much? I enjoyed A Distant Mirror immensely but she's a
popular writer, not a serious historian a such.
My
3 cents,
nathan freeburg