This piece by Matthew Reisz is an old one but it is very interesting, both on the Great Academic Conspiracy and on the threat posed by academics straying out of their home field and into other areas, but still basing their 'truth claim' on their academic titles and affiliations. Those of us who come up against DNA and Climate Change 'explanations' on a regular basis will be all too familiar with this. My book on
Worlds of Arthur is at least an attempt to do something akin to what Aaronovitch and others say we should be doing. ... And you gotta love the quote from Richard Evans at the very end.