[AdieuToLogic]

> Now the question is how can I, someone without a PhD in history but currently a PhD candidate in another discipline, use these tools to reliably interrogate topics of interest and produce at least a graduate level understanding of them?

You can't. Because LLM's are statistical generative text algorithms, dependent upon their training data set and subsequent reinforcement. Think Bayesian statistics.

What you are asking for is "to reliably interrogate topics of interest", which is not what LLM's do. Concepts such as reliability are orthogonal to their purpose.