To determine if the author or a book or article is/was a historian you will need to conduct research on the author.
You can begin by doing the following:
1) Go to Google and search the author's first and last name.
2) If the author is still living and working as a historian, she/he will typically have an academic appointment and be listed on a University Department web page which will list their educational credentials and publications.
3) If you cannot find an active faculty listing, you can also consult the following works in the reference area of the Learning Commons which list prominent historians:
A Short Guide to Writing about History by The world's most current, comprehensive and reliable online literature database. Uniquely relevant to today's curriculum, the resource's rich critical, biographical and contextual materials support interdisciplinary approaches.
