请教 这句话什么意思？

wangjieava23

But is the thesis true? Recent work on the supposed consequences of an open elite has already produced some doubts. Little credence, for example, is now accorded the idea that England’s late nineteenth-century economic decline resulted from absentee business owners too distracted by the demands of elite life to manage their firms properly. But, although the importance of an open elite to other major events has been severely questioned, it is only with a new work by Lawrence and Jeanne Stone that the openness itself has been confronted.Eschewing the tackof tracing the careers of successful entrepreneurs to gauge the openness of the elite, the Stones chose the alternative approach of analyzing the elite itself, and proceeded via the ingenious route of investigating country-house ownership.

这句读了很多次都没有读懂 ， 谁可以帮我翻译一下。

lee0613

我的理解是：although the importance of an open elite to other major events has been severely questioned，但也仅仅Lawrence and Jeanne Stone的一部新作才真正直面elite openness的问题。
不知对否，供参考吧～～

wangjieava23

恩，the openness itself。你的理解是对的。