Craig,
I thought I'd post this at the top as the "10 reasons" thread was getting a bit long to scroll through.

If I may ask, what particular level of education (and in what fields) is necessary for you to consider a writer to be a "trained historian". I see a lot of implications from you and some analogies, but no specifications.

I found your analogy between historians and the field of medicine to be rather thin, though. It seems, at the present moment to me, a better analogy would be historians, trained historians, etc. are very much like accepted theologians, trained theologians.

How about Dr. Thomas E. Woods? Would he fall into the category of "trained historian"? (He has a bachelor's degree in history from Harvard, a masters in philosophy, and a Ph.D. - the latter two from Columbia U.)

Just curious,
Penny