I really don’t think many serious people consider it much of a history book. However, for obvious reasons, it is possibly the most important cultural document in the West. There is extra-biblical evidence of many of the events described in both the O.T. and N.T., but some of the important ones —events integral to both Jewish and Christian beliefs—such as the 430-year enslavement of the Jews under the Egyptians, the existence of Moses and the Exodus (which includes the ten plagues, the death of the Pharaoh and the provenance of the Ten Commandments), there is none to be found. None. As yet. And because there is no extra-biblical evidence of these important events, the Bible isn’t taken seriously as a historical document in the academic world. There are careers to be made in this field—nice ones, quietly spent in libraries and lecture halls in the world’s best institutions. Nice work, if you can get it.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, there is contemporaneous extra-biblical evidence of the existence of a rather troublesome young Rabbi named Yeshua found in the writings of Josephus Flavius and Tacitus (who has proven to be an extraordinarily punctilious historian of great merit). They both write of this Yeshua living in Israel between 4 b.c.e and 40 c.e, and they both describe his execution ordered and carried out by the local Roman proconsul, Pontius Pilot. This Yeshua is said to be crucified, which was a death reserved for criminals punished by the military and not civil authorities. However, absent is discussion of walking on water, raising the dead, or turning water into wine.
None of this diminishes the Bible as the most important cultural document in Western civilization which we have for millennial based our laws, our lore, much of our classical art, literature and music, and have based our best and worst behaviours as a civilization. In so many ways, what has manifested from this book of documents has defined us and set us apart culturally.