Scholar

From Metapedia

At present, scholarship is largely the domain of professional specialists, most of whom work as academics in universities, research institutes, and museums; see Academia. However, there are also scholars who support themselves by writing nonfiction books or other publishable material; for example, the historian Barbara Tuchman was such a scholar, as is Dava Sobel. The military historian John Keegan worked for many years as an academic but is now an independent scholar. Lastly, there are scholars who work at the highest level but are amateurs, supporting themselves with an independent fortune, with day jobs, or by the generosity of others. Such scholars played a far more important role prior to the twentieth century; for examples, see Charles Darwin, Heinrich Schliemann, and Karl Marx. For more on amateur scholarship, see independent scholar.

Scholarship often attracts special personalities, particularly in those societies where it is not highly valued by the vernacular culture. Often, scholars are thought of as being cut off from their colloquial culture and intensely absorbed by their topic of study (see Ivory Tower). Nevertheless, the impulse to become a scholar seems to be widespread. Those who teach in universities find that some of their students get "bitten by the bug" of scholarship, and feel impelled to pursue the scholarly impulse despite the dubious prospects for job security that a scholarly career affords.