The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.
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List of the most influential people in History,
#6901
Sverre Steen
1898 - 1983 (85 years)
Sverre Steen was a Norwegian historian and professor at the University of Oslo from 1938 to 1965. He served as president of the Norwegian Historical Association from 1936 to 1947 Biography Steen was born in Bergen, Norway. He was the son of Johan Martin Nilsen Steen and Bertha Kathrine Hopland . He was a student at Bergen Cathedral School from 1911 to 1916. He attended the University of Oslo from 1918 where he was mentored by professor of history Edvard Bull Sr. .
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Heinrich Gottfried Philipp Gengler
1817 - 1901 (84 years)
Heinrich Gottfried Philipp Gengler was a German historian of law, Geheimrat and academic lecturer. Philipp Gengler was born in Bamberg in Germany. He studied at the University of Würzburg and at the University of Heidelberg. In 1842 he obtained from the University of Erlangen the Ph. D. degree. One year later he qualified there for inauguration. In 1847 he became a lecturer in German legal history at Erlangen University, and in 1851 he was awarded a full professorship at the University of Erlangen. He died in Erlangen, aged 84.
Go to Profile#6903
Emily Sadka
1919 - 1968 (49 years)
Emily or Emma Sadka was an Iraqi-Singaporean historian and researcher specialising in the Political History of the Malayan region, which she taught at the University of Malaya and in Australian universities.
Go to Profile#6904
Gerhard Gran
1856 - 1925 (69 years)
Gerhard von der Lippe Gran was a Norwegian literary historian, professor, magazine editor, essayist and biographer. Personal life Gran was born in Bergen as the son of merchant Christen Knagenhjelm Gran and his wife Constance Mowinckel . He was the paternal grandson of politician Jens Gran, and a second cousin of botanist Haaken Hasberg Gran and aviator Tryggve Gran. On the maternal side was a first cousin of Wenche von der Lippe Mowinckel, who was a granddaughter of Jacob von der Lippe and mother of Arthur, Waldemar and Gerhard C. Kallevig. Wenche lived with Gerhard Gran's family while atte...
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Arnold Bergstraesser
1896 - 1964 (68 years)
Arnold Bergstraesser was a German political scientist. Along with Wolfgang Abendroth, Karl Dietrich Bracher, Theodor Eschenburg, and Eric Voegelin, he was one of the founders of political science in West Germany after World War II.
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Maria Bezobrazova
1857 - 1914 (57 years)
Maria Vladimirovna Bezobrazova was a philosopher, historiographer, educator, journalist and women's rights activist from the Russian Empire. She was "the first among Russian women to receive training in philosophy".
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Robert Matteson Johnston
1867 - 1920 (53 years)
Robert Matteson Johnston was an American historian and an important scholar of military history. Biography Robert Matteson Johnston was born in Paris on April 11, 1867. He was educated at Eton College and Pembroke College, Cambridge. He taught at Harvard University and Mount Holyoke College, and was a founding member of the faculty at Simmons University. In 1917, he was appointed Chief of the Historical Section of the General Staff in the field with the rank of major in the United States Army.
Go to Profile#6908
Constantin Giurescu
1875 - 1919 (44 years)
Constantin Giurescu was a Romanian historian. In 1914, he became a titular member of the Romanian Academy. Biography Giurescu was born in Chiojdu, Buzău County and studied at the Saints Peter and Paul High School in Ploiești. He graduated in July 1898 from the University of Bucharest with a diploma in Philosophy and Letters. He taught history at the Unirea High School in Focșani from 1898 to 1902. In 1900 he met Elena Antonescu , the daughter of Costache Antonescu, a local merchant, and married her in January 1901. In October of that year they had a son, Constantin C. Giurescu, who went on ...
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John VIII Palaiologos
1392 - 1448 (56 years)
John VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus was the penultimate Byzantine emperor. Ruling from 1425 to 1448, he attempted, and failed, the reunification of the Orthodox and Catholic churches and prioritized the protection of Constantinople against the Ottoman Empire, he was succeeded by his brother, Constantine XI.
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Robert Joseph Dwyer
1908 - 1976 (68 years)
Robert Joseph Dwyer was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the fifth Archbishop of Portland from 1966 to 1974, having previously served as the second Bishop of Reno . Early life and education Dwyer was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, the only child of John Charles and Mabel Dwyer. His father was of Irish descent, and his mother of French Canadian. He attended Wasatch Public School and Judge Memorial High School. In 1925, he enrolled at the Marist Seminary in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. Shortly afterwards, he transferred to St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, California.
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Arnold Reymond
1874 - 1958 (84 years)
Arnold Reymond was a Swiss theolgian, philosopher and historian of science. Life Reymond received a doctorate from the University of Geneva in 1908; his thesis on the history of ideas of the infinite, Logique et mathématiques, was reviewed by Bertrand Russell in Mind. Reymond taught at the University of Neuchâtel from 1912 to 1925, where he taught and influenced Jean Piaget. In 1925 he took up a chair at the University of Lausanne.
Go to Profile#6912
Bertram Colgrave
1889 - 1968 (79 years)
Bertram Colgrave was a medieval historian, antiquarian and archaeologist, specializing on the lives of the early saints in Anglo-Saxon England. Life Colgrave attended King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys in Birmingham, prior to undergraduate studies at the University of Birmingham. He went on to study for a second degree in Anglo-Saxon and Middle English at Clare College in the University of Cambridge, teaching briefly at Merchiston Castle School near Edinburgh from 1916 to 1918. In 1920 he was appointed lecturer in English at Durham University, with a promotion to reader in 1930. He was attached to Hatfield College.
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Hugo Valentin
1888 - 1963 (75 years)
Hugo Valentin was a Swedish historian, scholar and leading Zionist. He received his PhD from Uppsala University in 1916 and took up teaching at the Teachers Training College in Uppsala and at a high school. In 1930 he was appointed lecturer at the high school in Uppsala . In 1930 he was also awarded the title of Docent by the university, and, some years later, in 1948, the government awarded him the honorary title of professor.
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Richard Lodge
1855 - 1936 (81 years)
Sir Richard Lodge was a British historian. He was born at Penkhull, Staffordshire, the fourth of eight sons and a daughter of Oliver Lodge , later a china clay merchant at Wolstanton, Staffordshire, and his wife, Grace . His siblings included Sir Oliver Lodge , physicist; Eleanor Constance Lodge , historian and principal of Westfield College, London; and Alfred Lodge , mathematician.
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Friedrich Hermann Schubert
1925 - 1973 (48 years)
Friedrich Hermann Schubert was a German historian. Life Schubert was born in Dresden in 1925 as the son of the Dresden professor of architecture and architect Otto Schubert and the teacher Veronika née Strüver, whose parents were well established in the high society of Dresden; this was especially true of his grandfather, who was a model for him as a lawyer. His paternal grandfather is the sculptor Hermann Schubert. Schubert attended the , which he completed in February 1944 with the Abitur. He escaped being drafted into the Wehrmacht because of an illness that took him two years. In 1946, however, he began studying history and economics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
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Aarno Maliniemi
1892 - 1972 (80 years)
Aarno Henrik Maliniemi was a Finnish historian, professor in church history at Helsinki University 1945–1960. Maliniemi was an expert on the medieval church. He studied early Finnish literature, and was editor of a number of publications and bibliographies.
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Karl Johannes Neumann
1857 - 1917 (60 years)
Karl Johannes Neumann was a German classical historian. He studied classical philology, ancient history and church history at the University of Leipzig, later continuing his education at the University of Tübingen. In 1880 he received his doctorate at Leipzig with a dissertation on the anti-Christianity writings of Emperor Julian . Following graduation, he worked as an assistant in the university library at Halle. In 1880 he became an associate professor at the University of Strasbourg, where he gained a full professorship in 1890. In 1909/10 he served as university rector.
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Abu Mohammed Habibullah
1911 - 1984 (73 years)
Abu Mohammed Habibullah, also known as ABM Habibullah, was a Bangladeshi historian and writer. Early life Habibullah was born on 1911 in Burdwan District, West Bengal, British India. He graduated from Hughli Madrasa in 1926 and Islamic Intermediate College, Dhaka in 1928. He graduated with a B.A. in history from Hooghly Mohsin College in 1931 and a M.A. in history from the University of Calcutta in 1933. He earned his PhD from the School of Oriental Studies of the University of London. He also received a diploma in library science.
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Mikhaïl Suzumov
1893 - 1982 (89 years)
Mikhaïl Suzumov was a Soviet Russian historian, Doctor of Sciences in Historical Sciences . He was a professor at the Ural State University. His father was a veterinarian by profession. In 1911 he became a student at University of Tartu, where he studied under prof. Alexander Vasiliev, and in 1916, he graduated. He is a Byzantine scholar. From 1918 he served in the Red Army in the 27th Rifle Division. From 1920 he lived in the city of Zlatoust. In 1938 he worked for Ural State Pedagogical University and in 1943, Suzumov defended his Candidate's Dissertation. His opponent was A. I. Neusykhin. In 1954, he defended his doctoral dissertation.
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Traian Herseni
1907 - 1980 (73 years)
Traian Herseni was a Romanian social scientist, journalist, and political figure. First noted as a favorite disciple of Dimitrie Gusti, he helped establish the Romanian school of rural sociology in the 1920s and early '30s, and took part in interdisciplinary study groups and field trips. A prolific essayist and researcher, he studied isolated human groups across the country, trying to define relations between sociology, ethnography, and cultural anthropology, with an underlying interest in sociological epistemology. He was particularly interested in the peasant cultures and pastoral society of the Făgăraș Mountains.
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Ian Turner
1922 - 1978 (56 years)
Ian Alexander Hamilton Turner was an Australian political activist, serving important roles in both the Communist Party of Australia and Australian Labour Party. As a leading historian, he wrote the book Industrial Labour and Politics, which examined the Australian labour politics.
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Daniel Rapant
1897 - 1988 (91 years)
Daniel Rapant was a Slovak historian, archivist and university teacher. Life He graduated in Skalica in 1917 then he had studied history and Slavic studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague . At the same time he had studied also at the State Archivist School in Prague . After completing his studies in Czechoslovakia, he studied at Paris-Sorbonne University. In 1924 he became the main county archivist in Bratislava.
Go to Profile#6923
Friedrich Philippi
1853 - 1930 (77 years)
Gustav Friedrich Dettmar Philippi was a German archivist and historian. He studied philology at the University of Bonn, receiving his doctorate in 1876 with a dissertation on the Tabula Peutingeriana. Following graduation, he worked as an archivist at the state archives in Münster. In 1888, he was appointed head of the state archives in Osnabrück and, in 1897, returned to Münster as director of the archives.
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Edward Nares
1762 - 1841 (79 years)
Edward Nares was an English historian and theologian, and general writer. Life He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. He was Fellow of Merton College, Oxford and in 1813, he became Regius Professor of Modern History. He was curate of St Peter-in-the-East, Oxford, and then rector of Biddenden from 1798, of New Church, Romney from 1827.
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Ban Zhao
45 - 116 (71 years)
Ban Zhao , courtesy name Huiban , was a Chinese historian, philosopher, and politician. She was the first known female Chinese historian and, along with Pamphile of Epidaurus, one of the first known female historians. She completed her brother Ban Gu's work on the history of the Western Han, the Book of Han. She also wrote Lessons for Women, an influential work on women's conduct. She also had great interest in astronomy and mathematics and wrote poems, commemorative writings, argumentations, commentaries, essays and several longer works, not all of which survive. She became China's most famous female scholar and an instructor of Taoist sexual practices for the imperial family.
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A. Hamilton Thompson
1873 - 1952 (79 years)
Alexander Hamilton Thompson, was a historian. He was Professor of Medieval History at the University of Leeds from 1924 to 1939. Early life and education Thompson was born on 7 November 1873 at Clifton, Bristol, the son of The Reverend John Thompson, Vicar of St Gabriel's, Bristol, and his wife Annie Hastings . He attended Clifton College from 1883 to 1890 and Totnes School for a year. He gained a minor scholarship to read Classics at St John's College, Cambridge from 1892 to 1895. He received his BA in 1895, later promoted to MA in 1903.
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Christian Martin Frähn
1782 - 1851 (69 years)
Christian Martin Joachim Frähn , German and Russian numismatist and historian, was born at Rostock, Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Frähn began his Oriental studies under Tychsen at the university of Rostock, and afterwards continued them at Göttingen and Tübingen. He became a Latin master in Pestalozzi's famous institute in 1804, taught at Rostock as a Privatdozent in 1806, and in the following year was chosen to fill the chair of Oriental languages in the Russian university of Kazan. Though in 1815 he was invited to succeed Tychsen at Rostock, he preferred to go to St Petersburg, where he became director of the Asiatic museum and councillor of state.
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Martin Schoock
1614 - 1669 (55 years)
Martin Schoock was a Dutch academic and polymath. Life He was born in Utrecht. His grandfather Anton van Voorst taught him Latin. His parents were Remonstrants and intended him for the law; he studied theology and philosophy from 1632 in Leiden under Antonius Walaeus. As a student of Gisbertus Voetius he acquired a doctorate in philosophy around 1636.
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George Cockburn Henderson
1870 - 1944 (74 years)
George Cockburn Henderson was an Australian academic with a considerable career in Adelaide. History Cockburn was born in Hamilton, New South Wales, the eighth of nine children of Richard T. Henderson and was educated at Hamilton and Lawrence public schools. He passed the public instruction examination at age 13 and was admitted to Macquarie Superior Public School as a pupil teacher under his brother Richard Henderson. In December 1889 he won a £72 per annum scholarship to the Fort Street Training College. He matriculated the following March and in so doing won two-years' free tuition at Syd...
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Franz Seraph Streber
1806 - 1864 (58 years)
Franz Seraph Streber was a German numismatist. Streber was born in Deutenkofen, Lower Bavaria. The nephew of Franz Ignaz von Streber, he first studied theology and philosophy, then archæology and numismatics, and in 1830 wrote as his dissertation for obtaining the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Erlangen a paper on the genealogy of the Burgraves of Nuremberg. In 1854 he became a member of the Academy of Munich. In 1835 he was made professor of archæology at the University of Munich, of which he was twice rector. In 1827 he was made clerk, in 1830 assistant, and in 1841 curator of the royal cabinet of coins.
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Herman Vandenburg Ames
1865 - 1935 (70 years)
Herman Vandenburg Ames was an American legal historian, archivist, and professor of United States constitutional history at the University of Pennsylvania and, from 1907 to 1928, dean of its graduate school. His 1897 monograph, The Proposed Amendments to the Constitution of the United States During the First Century of Its History, was a landmark work in American constitutional history. Other works by Ames included John C. Calhoun and the Secession Movement of 1850, Slavery and the Union 1845–1861, and The X.Y.Z. Letters, the latter of which he authored with John Bach McMaster. Among his nota...
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Robert Preston Brooks
1881 - 1961 (80 years)
Robert Preston Brooks was one of the first recipients of the Rhodes Scholarship, and later served as the first dean of the School of Commerce at the University of Georgia from 1920 to 1945. Brooks authored numerous books and papers about Georgia, with emphasis on history and commerce.
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Mabel Haynes Bode
1864 - 1922 (58 years)
Mabel Haynes Bode was one of the first women to enter the academic fields of Pali, Sanskrit and Buddhist studies. She lectured in Pali and Sanskrit, made an edition of the Pali text Sāsanavaṃsa, and helped with translating into English of the German translation of the Mahāvaṃsa. She was specializing in the Pali literature of Burma, about which she wrote a book published in 1909. She was the first woman to have an article published in the prestigious Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
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Emil von Ottenthal
1855 - 1931 (76 years)
Emil von Ottenthal was an Austrian historian and archivist. He studied history under Alfons Huber at the University of Innsbruck and with Theodor von Sickel at the Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung in Vienna. In 1880 he obtained his habilitation for history at Innsbruck, and from 1882 was associated with the Austrian Historical Institute in Rome. From 1888 to 1912, with Oswald Redlich, he published the Archiv-Berichte aus Tirol .
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Frances Sergeant Childs
1901 - 1988 (87 years)
Frances Sergeant Childs was an American historian who was a founding faculty member of Brooklyn College. Her area of specialization was Franco-American relations in the 18th and 19th centuries. Biography Childs was born in New York City to Frances Aimee Childs and Edward Herrick Childs. Her maternal grandfather was the painter John La Farge. She attended Chapin School and then got her undergraduate degree from Bryn Mawr College and her master's and doctoral degrees from Columbia University.
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Peter Kandela
#6937
Samuel A. Eliot
1862 - 1950 (88 years)
Samuel Atkins Eliot II was an American Unitarian minister. In 1898 the American Unitarian Association elected him secretary but in 1900 the position was redesignated as president and Eliot served in that office from inception to 1927, significantly expanding the association's activities and consolidating denominational power in its administration.
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Obadiah Walker
1616 - 1699 (83 years)
Obadiah Walker was an English academic and Master of University College, Oxford, from 1676 to 1688. Life Walker was born at Darfield, Yorkshire, and was educated at University College, Oxford, becoming a fellow and tutor of this College and a prominent figure in University circles. In July 1648, an act of parliament deprived him of his academic appointments, and he passed some years in teaching, studying and travelling. He returned to Oxford at the Restoration of 1660, and a few years began later to take a leading part in the work of University College. In June 1676, he became head or "Maste...
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Pieter Anton Tiele
1834 - 1889 (55 years)
Pieter Anton Tiele was for many years the librarian of Utrecht University. Life He was distinguished himself by his bibliographical studies, more especially by his several works on the history of colonization in Asia.
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Heinrich Ritter
1791 - 1869 (78 years)
Heinrich August Ritter was a German philosopher and historian of philosophy. He was born in Zerbst, and studied philosophy and theology at the University of Göttingen and Berlin until 1815. In 1824 he became an associate professor of philosophy at Berlin, later transferring to Kiel, where he occupied the chair of philosophy from 1833 to 1837. He then accepted a similar position at the University of Göttingen, where he remained till his death. Friedrich Schleiermacher was a major influence in his thinking.
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Victor Delbos
1862 - 1916 (54 years)
Étienne Marie Justin Victor Delbos was a Catholic philosopher and historian of philosophy. Delbos was appointed a lecturer at the Sorbonne in 1902. In 1911 he became a member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. He died in July 1916 as a result of an infectious myocarditis brought on by pleurisy. Maurice Blondel, a close friend, wrote an obituary account of Delbos and saw various posthumous publications through the press.
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Peder Hansen Resen
1625 - 1688 (63 years)
Peder Hansen Resen was a Danish historian, legal scholar and president of Copenhagen. Early life and education Peder Hansen Resen was born 17 June 1625 in Copenhagen. He was the son of the Bishop of Zealand, and Thale Vinstrup. As a young child he was privately tutored until 1641, when he began attending Vor Frue Skole. In 1643 he matriculated at the University of Copenhagen where he passed the theological exam in 1645. After graduating, he worked returned to Vor Frue Skole as a teacher.
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Johann David Köhler
1684 - 1755 (71 years)
Johann David Köhler was a German historian. His academic focuses were on Roman coins as historical artifacts, ancient weapons, and genealogy. Köhler also served as university librarian at Altdorf and contributed to the early library science literature.
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William Sharp McKechnie
1863 - 1930 (67 years)
William Sharp McKechnie was a Scottish scholar, historian, lecturer in Constitutional Law and History, and author of Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John with an Historical Introduction. He later held the Chair of Conveyancing at the University of Glasgow from 1916 until 1927. Upon his retirement, he was awarded an honorary LL.D.
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René Albrecht-Carrié
1904 - 1978 (74 years)
René Albrecht-Carrié was a diplomatic historian. Born in Smyrna, Albrecht-Carrié was educated at Columbia University, where he gained an AB in 1923 and a PhD in 1938. He spent his academic career as Professor of History at Barnard College and at Columbia's School of International Affairs .
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Roark Bradford
1896 - 1948 (52 years)
Roark Whitney Wickliffe Bradford was an American short story writer and novelist. Life He attended University of California, Berkeley, and served as a first lieutenant in the Coast Artillery during World War I.
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Royall Tyler
1884 - 1953 (69 years)
Royall Tyler , was an American historian, who was a descendant of the American jurist and playwright Royall Tyler. He was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, and educated at Harrow School in England. After a time at New College, Oxford, he moved to the University of Salamanca, where he became a friend of Miguel de Unamuno. In 1909 he published Spain, a Study of her Life and Arts, the first work in English to recognize the genius of El Greco. Appointed by the British government to edit the Calendar of State Papers related to negotiations between England and Spain in the time of Charles V, Holy Roman...
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Innocent
1600 - 1683 (83 years)
Innokenty Gizel was a Prussian-born historian, writer, and political and ecclesiastic figure, who had adopted Orthodox Christianity and made a substantial contribution to Ukrainian culture. Innokentiy Gizel was a rector of the Kyivan Theological School. In 1656, he was appointed archmandrite of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. Innokentiy Gizel is known to have supported the unification of Ukraine and autonomy of the Kyiv clergy, simultaneously. Innokentiy Gizel is generally credited for writing the Synopsis in 1674, but some researchers deny his authorship.
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François Laurent
1810 - 1887 (77 years)
François Laurent was a Belgian historian and jurisconsult. Life and works He was born in Luxembourg City. He held a high appointment in the ministry of justice for some time before he became professor of civil law at the university of Ghent in 1836. His advocacy of liberal and anti-clerical principles both from his chair and in the press made him bitter enemies, but he retained his position until his death in 1887.
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Gottlob Benedikt von Schirach
1743 - 1804 (61 years)
Gottlob Benedikt von Schirach was a Sorbian historian, philosopher and writer, and later a diplomat in Danish service. He was a son of the Sorbian theologian Christian Gottlob Schirach . After studying history and philology at the University of Leipzig, he became a lecturer at the University of Halle in 1764. In 1769 he became Professor of Philosophy at the University of Helmstedt. He published several books and was regarded as a well-known author in his lifetime.
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