Also, you state "It is perhaps difficult for a senior lecturer in political theory to have enough grasp of history to appreciate the interplay between ideas, actions and words in the case of so many historical figures operating at different times." Obviously, it is perhaps difficult for a senior politician to have enough grasp of proper, in-depth academic research or genuine intellectual matters more generally to appreciate the interplay between different schools of thought in the case of so many researchers and thinkers, but it's worth pointing out that Runciman is a representative of the Cambridge School of interpretation of political theory, according to which historical context and location of ideas within discourses and events is of central importance. So if that charge is inappropriate to any political theorist, it's Runciman. Looks like your standards have slipped since those halcyon days at All Souls.