No, in the physical sciences I read the papers. But I am selective, I have to be. History, well the papers are less accessible to me anyway, so often you are limited to reviews (its worth noting that so is Keith, since that is what he has been quoting recently). If Keith quotes reviews, I will respond to reviews. Maybe you, with access to the academic publications in a subject, would be prepared to quote something from a peer-reviewed paper which back's up Keith's views. And I don't mean the opinions of historians, which are no more valid than the opinions of everybody else, I mean facts backed up with a description of the methodology, i.e. how they were ascertained.