In Anthony Grafton's The Footnote: A Curious History, he claims that citations practices in the field of history have the tendency to use "cf." -- which normall

In Anthony Grafton's The Footnote: A Curious History, he claims that citations practices in the field of history have the tendency to use "cf." -- which normally means something like "compare with this reference" -- to mean "compare with this reference (which is actually wrong and stupid)". So you have to watch out for the possibility of ironic or sarcastic references, which may vary from field to field.