It frustrates me that fields such as history are increasingly becoming something of a free-for-all. Imagine the reverse, in which a bona fide history professor publishes a polemic book claiming to ‘lift the veil on secrets’ of, say, structural engineering. It’d be considered absurd, and rightly so.

(Also, I would point out that he wasn't a crank, he was one of the leading scholars of his day working on one of its most important topics, and he should be a constant memorial to modern researchers: one day all this will be a punchline.)

Ik zou niet weten wat ;-)