Quote Originally Posted by YellowMelon
Does having a degree in history make you more knowledgeable? I don't think so. What a degree will do is hone your research skills and develop higher ordered thinking. If you take any historiography (in my school is was a requirement), you will learn how to read history with a critical eye. Some of the most knowledgeable people I have met online do not have qualifications in history, or any other field for that matter. History is so broad that you can't learn it all, so amateurs can specialize in certain areas and become more knowledgeable than people with degrees (even PhDs). I know several people who have graduated from my program that know absolutely nothing about history, but rather their capacity for alcohol consumption!
Agreed. That's also what my course focuses on: understanding why people write history, and honing research and writing skills with work lectures and papers. While amateurs can learn the facts and often learn many (as is evidenced by internet...) they aren't going to be the people who put things in perspective or dig deeper for underlying causes and subtle effects.

To be honest, after starting the course I cannot possibly read many books with the same eyes again.