I'm not dismissing historians as a body of people. I am saying that we can see things in the round far better if we take on board not just the professional historians we personally favour (plenty of name-dropping in these threads) but also the ones who grate with our personal politics, as well as contemporary chroniclers and writers who we may not think of as historians but who can speak to us about the lives of ordinary people. Too right I haven't read much history, but I have read much. I know how to discriminate, thank you. It's a study skill that goes across the board, not confined to history. There are people singing in amateur choirs and playing in local village orchestras who understand Handel and Beethoven far better than many a professor of music.