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Yup, the examples were where the thesis was politically incorrect. For instance, there were a number of graduate students in Soviet history who made careers claiming that the Soviet Union was more violent than the politically correct, leftist historical mainstream narrative depicted. Similarly, I know a graduate student who made a career out of showing that the Amish were actually much more tolerant and respectful toward women than the historical mainstream narrative depicted.
There's a large gap between saying that the hounding of Summers was a witch-hunting campaign, and that one can't trust many academics on issues relating to race and gender. The latter is a categorical and absolutist statement, one that does not nuance then situation in any significant way. It doesn't acknowledge that weak evidence is still evidence, or that plenty of academics - such as myself and apparently you - have more complex and nuanced takes on women and gender and race.
That is evidence that historians can be trusted, although the Amish are clearly "others" and so defending them isn't really that politically incorrect.
"There's a large gap between saying that the hounding of Summers was a witch-hunting campaign, and that one can't trust many academics on issues relating to race and gender." I don't agree. The hounding was widespread and sent a clear message that you risk a lot if you take a politically incorrect position on issues of race or gender. If there is a group of 1,000 scholars and I believe that 100 of them will lie concerning issue X, and that another 600 would only write about issue X if they found evidence favoring a particular side, and I can't differentiate among the scholars then it's reasonable for me to give almost no weight to what any of these scholars say about issue X.
My personal story might be biasing me. I was initially denied tenure, but won an internal appeal when five professors on a grievance committee held that two members of my department had violated my academic freedom in my tenure review, one for being upset that I had criticized women studies departments in a National Review Online article.
Thanks for sharing your story. I'm having some challenges of my own with tenure due to my mental health challenges. It's a powerful driver that's leading me to be quite discontent with many aspects of academia.