Barbara Tuchman

Born Barbara Wertheim to a prominent German-Jewish banking family in New York, Tuchman certainly had the origin part down. Her grandfather, Henry Morgenthau Sr., was the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, and her father, Maurice Wertheim, was a successful banker and owner of The Nation magazine. Suffice to say, she didn't exactly come from humble beginnings.

While her Jewish identity wasn't a central theme in her historical work, she occasionally touched on Jewish history and was, by all accounts, a strong advocate against antisemitism. Her connection to the faith was more cultural and ancestral than strictly religious, though she maintained a sense of pride in her heritage.

Tuchman's K-score is off the charts, as befits someone who scooped up two Pulitzer Prizes (for The Guns of August and Stillwell and the American Experience in China). She had no formal history degrees, which makes her achievements all the more impressive – or, depending on your perspective, all the more annoying to tenured professors. She proved that you don't need a PhD to write history that resonates, just an uncanny ability to turn dusty archives into page-turners.