Passage Summary: The speaker claims that knowing history is a surefire way to impress smart people, and you can't gain that knowledge without reading. Therefore, they conclude that if you don't read the books, you won't be able to impress those smart people.

Conclusion: If you do not read many history books, you will find it difficult to impress intellectuals.

Reasoning: Knowing history is a way to easily impress intellectuals, and one cannot know history without reading a significant number of history books.

Analysis: This is a textbook case of a 'Mistaken Negation' in formal logic. The author tells us that knowing history is a sufficient way to impress intellectuals, but then acts as if it's the only way. Just because a lack of reading means you don't know history doesn't mean you've lost your only shot at being impressive; you might impress them with your knowledge of quantum physics or your ability to play the cello. When you see an argument move from 'If A, then B' to 'If Not A, then Not B,' you have identified the core logical flaw.