" ... the image that emerges (in The Imagined Village certainly) is that of an authoritarian autocrat hung up on his absolute correctness in matters of the culture of Folk Dance and Song."

I've noticed, throughout my life, that there's a tendency to confer labels, like "authoritarian autocrat" on people who say or write things that other people don't want to hear. Sharp was a doer and a deep and original thinker - perhaps he found himself in constant conflict with people who had already decided what Folk Dance and Song were and weren't prepared to even consider any evidence which conflicted with their preconceptions.