Sorry I know this is a bit of a gotcha question, but after seeing an older response to someone asking "Is the "YouTube historian" Lindybeige reliable?" The person responding didn't answer the question of whether or not they were reliable, just that he was not a historian. What qualifies people as historians?
Because it seemed clearly from this persons claims about 50% or more of the actual historians throughout human history would not have been.
Thx ~ Jim
I looked at various definitions and they all essentially boil down to this one
a person who writes or studies history, esp one who is an authority on it.
I would say that this is the most lax definition, but a professional historian is someone who is a full time scholar such as a researcher or lecturer in an academic setting. It also helps the professional label to publish occasionally.
But truthfully anyone who has training in historical methods and research can be a historian, after that its debates about approach and quality, how dogmatic the others at the university are ect.