Talk:Charles D. Provan

Brian Renk - historian?

An IP editor keeps insisting that Brian Renk is a "historian". As far as I can tell, he is a masonry industry consultant. Could someone here please provide some documentation showing he is a "historian"? Jayjg ^(talk) 22:07, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Gosh, ya know, people that regularly debate history are called "historians", irrespective of whether you or I like the subject of their debate and irrespective of whatever "day job" they may have. A simple Google search turns up Renk as involved in history debates, not masonry. C.m.jones 05:42, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

But none of them are reliable sources. What are his qualifications as a "historian"? Does he have a PhD in the subject? Does he teach the subject in a University? Has he published in peer-reviewed history journals? Has he written books of history published by academic presses? Has he been recognized by reliable sources as being a historian? Jayjg ^(talk) 02:35, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

A historian is not a person who regularly debates history; that would be a debater. History is a branch of scholarship, and a historian is a person who uses the tools of scholarship to study history and produce original research thereon.--Prosfilaes (talk) 19:50, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

A historian is a person that researches and publishes on historical subjects. If it's a laymen that occasionally debates history, that may be a "hobby-historian", but calling him a historian would be far fetched. I occasionally do maintenance on cars or other equipment, but that doesn't make me a mechanic or technician. Someone that does it for a living may however be called so. --105.12.3.36 (talk) 16:41, 13 February 2018 (UTC)