How can we uncover the real truth in history?

Question

Over the years, everything has become fuzzy. I can remember a time when I believed the pilgrims and Indians were friends, and then there was college, and suddenly everything I had learned was a lie. How do you know what's real and what's not?

Same for current events... How can you sort out the fact from the deception?

Answer 1

Simple we cannot. The best we can do is to read as many different versions from those who were there and then draw conclusions of what happened.

Answer 2

As far as I'm concerned, most of our important history is unknown because it was not written down. I mean how much do we know about life 5, 10, 20 thousand years ago? And even within our own families, how many of us know what our ancesters did just 2 or 3 generations ago?

However, I think in some ways the details are unimportant. If you keep in mind human nature, especially that we have always struggled to survive, we have greed in our nature, and that people in control love to have power and exploit the masses, then you will understand the motivation behind most of the events in "history". And so you can figure out the facts yourself.

Answer 3

Well, some pilgrims and some Indians were friends. They just weren't all friends.

Seriously, the key to understanding history is to look at as my points of view as possible about historical events and times. In time, you'll develop a clear picture of what happened and why.

Take slavery, it's easy for us in the modern US to demonize the South for owning slaves, but it wouldn't be so easy back in the early 1800s to mid 1800s.

We could look at the Union's cause as just since they eradicated slavery, but the cause of the Civil War had as much to do with the rights of property owners, a cultural clash between northern industrial states and southern agrarian states.

Slavery was the catalyst that ripped the Union apart, but there was more to the times than that.

Next you need to consider what source material you're using to understand history.

Letters written by Abe LIncoln or soldiers in the Civil War are primary sources. They give you the straight dope from the people who lived during the moment. But, that's not the best method for interpreting history. That's where you go for secondary sources.

Secondary sources look at many primary sources and then write a history based on the source material.

A tertiary source is one in which the author read many books (secondary sources) about a historical event and then wrote about the subject.

Next, in time many things kept secret at the present become public knowledge in time. All the misdeeds of the CIA during the 50's are now coming to light.

The US played some dirty pool during the Cold War, and we're paying the price for it today in the Middle East.

So, to summarize, consider your source material. If you talk to an eyewitness, you'll get a different accounting than one from someone who talked to many eyewitnesses, or from someone who read many books on history.

Works the same for current events, except you need to consider who's motivating a public speaker to interpret what's going on.

Hope that helps.

Answer 4

First you read the different points of view ,ALL the different points of view and try to keep an open mind.
Then you think :who benefits NOW from lying and HOW.
And most important :WHO tries to forbid different points of view ,questions ,opinions.It is the one lying.The truth doesn't need protection or enforcement.
History and events are falsely presented when they influence the present ,someones interests ,or carry ideas.You will not find many differences in the analysis of the feudal system f.ex.because it doesn't influence anything ,nor carries ideas that could apply today.
Once you start thinking this way it becomes easier every day to sort things out.

Mac
A European who loves history

Answer 5

Someone said, "History is lies agreed upon". I doubt that one man can ever "uncover the real truth" about history or most other subjects. Specialists find such things as Ikhnaton after the priests tried to erase all traces of him. Recently, Michael Bellesiles tried to rewrite history to conform to his anti-gun stance. He had more nerve then brains and was revealed as one who manufactured historical evidence. He resigned from Emory University; was stripped of various honors;and his book was dropped by the original publisher. For every such person who is caught rewriting history, there may be many more who are not.

Answer 6

What we know is by the powers that be (either present or past) are willing to allow us to know. And when looking through information, either primary or secondary, we must remember that the recollection of the event is the author's "perspective" on what is happening. You have to ask yourself what was the motive of the author, what was the context of which it was written, etc... The truth is, as vast as our knowledge is we probably know less than 50% of true historical events.

Answer 7

invent time travel, go back and check it out

Answer 8

"Believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see."