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In terms of military history you're probably looking at Thucydides and Liddell-Hart, at least in terms of influence on the subject. The former is probably the overall father, but the latter is the father of our modern understanding of the subject. One could also count Marx in here, as he has had massive influence on the field as well (mainly through the introduction of social elements by those influenced by him). I wouldn't describe any of these three (ok, Thucydides probably was given the limitations of the day) as good historians however. Liddell-Hart and Marx were both happy to fudge the citations as necessary and allowed their preconceptions to dictate their analysis.
I'd say he was pretty poor at all three actually. Though he certainly attempted 'history' in a passing sense.
By that logic Hegel would be the greatest ever historian, followed by Marx and Fukuyama. Intelligent philosophers all, but not really historians themselves.
Honestly he said something people wanted to hear: "now we live in destitude. It is called stance x, next will be y and then z will be the final outcome. Happy ending to everybody". This logic is so childish I dont want even to comment it.
Given for what passed for history at the time, he did a pretty decent job.
Of course, if you like your history only in narrative, then it might not be to your taste.
Hegel was a brilliant philosopher who represented the peak of German idealism (even more so than Kant). Marx was simply one of his ugly step children who distorted Hegelian analysis to social history and generally political philosophy. Tragically his analysis received traction costing the world unknown amounts of hardship and cruelty.
I see Marx in much of the same light as Richard Dawkins. Neither a philosopher nor scientist. Not truly engaged with either the rigour of serious philosophic thought nor the meticulous methodology of scientific approach.
Good for you, I guess, but the title of this thread isn't "Greatest Philosophers..."
Edward Gibbon wrote over 100 years before him. Macaulay, Lord Action among many others can be considered as historians per se as we tend to consider them from a contemporary viewpoint. They most certainly are better historians from our measurements.
Gibbon is a narrative historian.
Both Marx & Gibbon drew directly from two different strands of the Scottish historical school which preceded them - the narrative and the conjectural. I don't consider the narrative strand superior, just different.
