Investigating the bygone world of your ancestors, immersing yourself in the details of yesteryear, and maybe even capturing ancestors' lives in a narrative family history — such sojourns into the past make a fascinating hobby. But for authors who write about history, making yesterday as vivid and engaging as today isn't just a sideline: It's their job.

If a biography or a book about a turning point in history contains little more than page after page of names and dates — the historian's equivalent of pedigree charts — readers won't make it past the first chapter. Famous figures and epochal battles may provide essential skeletons to the story, but the professional historian's job is to put flesh on those factual bones and bring past events and characters to life. That requires not only literary skills but also detailed research.