How do we know that history is true? I mean...?

Question

Let's say i write a book in which I say i am the king of the United States, a rank that does not exist and obviously i am not. Also, let's say that smthg happen and all human die and the only thing left is my note. The next generation that'll come and find my book will really think that i was a KING, therefore changing the course of history!

How can we be sure that we haven't been a victim of this?

@CopWannabe, u trying to be smart huh! u not answering the question! but ok, as you say, if history was passed along and that one guy that was supposed to tell the truth tells smthg else, let's say his grandgather was the Sultan of Morroco and the story goes on, then, history is modified

@Creampuff, yes! because they find some stuff about some people who lived 450 before JESUS CHRIST!You know, all those philosophe and stuff!How do you find that? Where do you get your sources from?

Kara, i got news for you, you are not the smartest one here on this website! Trust me on this!

Answer 1

How could there be a next generation if all humans died...there would have to be a living bloodline which would obviously have at least stories of how history actually went. that's how history was passed down in the past...stories and legends

Answer 2

1) If all of humanity died out, there would be no generations after you.
2) For something to be believed, there has to be more than one person to relate to it happening.

We know the holocaust was real because people from it are still living. That's history. We know of history because those who lived it pass the story generation to generation. We're telling the five year olds now about 9/11 (not in detail but I think you get it) and that is passing history along. We'll tell our kids what happened in our lives, and it'll just keep going.

Edit:

If you think this stuff can be made up, I think you're crazy. Nobody is sick enough to lie about the Holocaust. Nobody is sick enough to lie about 9/11, the atomic bombs, wars, and history in general.

Answer 3

We really don't know if history is true because things get manipulated all the time.

For example, the bible. A lot of things were omitted from the final copy, abviously the vatican didn't want certain things to be known about Jesus.

The same goes for this war. American history books are never going to contain any of the pictures of dead children because that would show the reality of war, just like the uncensored images of Vietnam, and that would be really bad for this government. But if you were to look at the history books from any middle eastern nation (except Isreal), they would show everything. All the death, all the destruction, and all the suffering.

Answer 4

Regarding the manipulation of history, it's entirely possible, and probable, that most of what we understand to be history is more fiction than fact. We have only so many concrete evidence, written records, family stories and varying methods of communication that have been handed down, and most of those were subjective in nature to begin with, complete with their own biases and perhaps their own reasons to omit, add fiction to the account or manipulate the account of the event in question. Obviously historians also have their biases, we're all driven to find the answers to our own questions, and I think a lot of the evidence we find is manipulated to fit into our conceptions and our own backgrounds and understandings. When we try to interpret Roman history, we identify with Spartacus as a freedom fighter, but by placing our own philosophies on top of Roman philosophies, we're really seeing the small fragments of evidence we have with a lot of bias and dirtied lenses. Just look back at all the interpretations we have of the 1960s and the social movements, political upheavals we have then. Can we really read papers from the time and truly understand the situation as they understood it? Do we know too much and over analyze, or too little, and presume too much to fill in the blanks? I think there are "frauds", notes such as your own, that were purposefully written to change one's own history (for instance, to write a more palatable history, perhaps one that shed a positive light on an empire's earlier history). But I doubt many have written falsified histories simply with the hope that they would mislead some future historians, as in your example. It may have occured, but the rewards of such an event would be negligible at best.

Answer 5

As you can see by this site. There is more than one book and finding your Castle would cast doubts on the validity of your book. And if all humans die...where is this next generation to come from? Ok, say one person survives. Now, their survival is the main object of their existence and books will be valued a fuel more than as a project for their intellectual stimulation.
How important will you be in the course of history? Could you change the course of history? Not much. Humans tend to love themselves more than Kings...although they can be brainwashed, I doubt that a single book will do that.

Answer 6

We can't, history is full of occasions when people were duped by dubious sources or items. I've seen things on archaeological sites in Israel being bulldozed away because they didn't fit an political/religious agenda (it disproved a religious "theory" held by the financial backers).
the best way of beating this is by using several strands of information to build a case.
The is as far as I'm aware, only one known minor reference to Pontius Pilate outside of the bible, so how can we base our preception of the man upon what is an essentially biased account?

Answer 7

well the truth is we can never be so sure of what happened.All WE rely on is what others wrote. The history we know is what the past wants us to know. I also question science, how can they possibly know so much about the outer space or tiny microrganisims, when the technology is not that advanced?

Answer 8

Pretty smart question!
A theory can't be based on one finding. So even if your book was found, other pieces of material would have to be found - maybe even pics, before anyone would believe that you were in fact "A King".
Plus if a few believed, persons would still be skeptical about it. (Perfect example - Darwin's theory of evolution).

Answer 9

All written history is baised, and subject to inaccuracies. You should keep this in mind, of course, but it should not stop you from reading.

Answer 10

i know what your saying. Unless the people back in history documented everything that was going on accuratly how do we know its true they probably just made most of it up.