Are historians required to memorize or be knowledgeable of every significant event in history?
Upvote:1
Historians need to specialize in a specific area and time to make a contribution to research, and to generalize well enough to see patterns where they affect their area of research.
Recently I talked to a software developer over lunch about recent politics in Europe and I mentioned the Russian Civil War. and the Allied intervention. He knew neither the war nor the intervention. Perhaps that is excusable in a software developer, but for a historian that would be a poor showing.
Just memorizing the names and dates is pointless. Knowing what historical figures did and in what order is priceless.
Upvote:2
No.
Professional historians are expected to demonstrate research capabilities. And mostly in one or two narrow specialties of history.
For most graduate programs, there is no "comprehensive" test or "common core" curriculum that one needs to pass. Historians do have to submit PhD dissertations, but those are "research," not "general knowledge" works.
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