It is indeed the duty of historians to stress the contrast between the standards of the past and the standards of the present. Some fulfill that duty on purpose, others by accident. One is left wondering whether Rabelais was not the last European to be truly human. Comparative social history is an extremely fruitful subject. Diversity schematized is diversity denied.
Peace is a function of power.
Even the most mundane of professions have their history. And those mundane professions increasingly run the capitalist world, including academic life. Their opponents suggest the opposite, that conspiracy and deception do not exist. Both are badly mistaken. No historian can compete with the poets for economy of thought.