From the first paragraph of the Harvard Crimson's obituary for Ihor Ševčenko, a distinguished emeritus historian and classicist at Harvard:
ponder the same questions repeatedly, were like mindless dogs who
urinated on the same tree in a forest—leaving other trees unexplored
for no specific reason. But according to one colleague, this
metaphor—called Ševčenko's law—did not apply to Ševčenko himself, who
never sought to follow just one trail, both as a historian and a man.
There's a lot of insight in that paragraph–though I might choose to describe the attraction in another way.
My favorite part is this:
Ihor Ševčenko, a dedicated subscriber to Rolling Stone magazine, was fascinated by popular culture, according to Elisabeth [his daughter].
"I
remember when I was younger, he took my 'Thriller' album that I had
just gotten and said, 'I need this thing! I need to understand this
Michael Jackson person,'" Elisabeth recalled. "After listening to the
album three times, he came down from the attic and joked, 'I don't
understand why Michael Jackson is such a big deal.'"
Gotta love historians who read Rolling Stone!
The New York Times has more, including this vignette: "In April 1946 he sent a letter to Orwell, asking his permission to
translate “Animal Farm” into Ukrainian for distribution in the camps.
The idea instantly appealed to Orwell, who not only refused to accept
any royalties but later agreed to write a preface for the edition. It remains his most detailed, searching discussion of the book."