Historians not Idealogues

Today Eric Hobsbawm died at the age of 95. Good Innings. However - while practicing as a historian and writing many history books he was first and last a Marxist. This undermines and nullifies the content of his writing. We can not be expected to take seriously history writing from persons who start out with an ideology which distorts everything they write or say. The problem is widespread and there are all sorts of historians at work whom we should ignore. On the right we have the likes of Niall Ferguson and Michael Burleigh. Do not read work by any historian who is noticeably attached to an -ism. Historians should end by making some useful suggestions, they should not begin by having a fixed view of what they are about to explore.