A historian is not an archeologist or an archivist. A historian is an analyzer of the
human condition. Someone can know a lot of 'history' and still not be a historian. It is a process of thinking that allows the elements of society to become clear to show the
causes and effects that decisions have made upon the world. Historians draw from many sources: policical science, geography, economics, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and many others. Sadly, the world tends to treat historians with disdain...what value is someone who is always looking into the past. It becomes quite simple really; the present becomes the past and often it tends to repeat itself. So searching into the past can shed enlightenment upon the present and in some cases even predict the future.
"What we learn from history, is that we don't learn from history." - Hegel