On one hand, I truly feel that all it takes for the serious scholar to emerge is that he/she feels the pull at some point. I started my life long fascination with British history by reading some godawrful bio of Elizabeth of York when I was thirteen. I then pushed through lots of pulp, more bad bios of people like Marguerite of Anjou and anything written by Jean Plaidy and Norah Lofts (deep shudder!)- I even thought that Thomas Costain was probably a true historian. But I learned, and I continued.

Ditto with my love affair with Odysseus. And Caesar. And all those roads took me other places- to Furumark markings on pottery, to the Bronze Age, to early Latin tribes, to French history, to the history of food in antiquity, to Homer, to language questions, etc. So, I feel that history being presented in some form or other will be the impetus for those whose propensities for the field lie dormant, waiting to escape from their fleshly prison.

Yet...dissemination of falsehood is severely dangerous, especially with history. The farther back we travel, the less we know...when we dilute what is known by adding generous dollops of wish think or fantasy, we pervert a standard, we erode the foundations. Sadly, for every single person who is inspired, despite the misinformation, to seek the truth, I think there are a dozen who just accept, and who then spread, the erroneous version.