Historical Fact and Fiction

"We are being detoured into the land of make-believe."
--Horatio Caine (CSI: Miami)

The more I read about American history, the more it seems that it has been significantly misrepresented in mainstream history books.

Over the past few years, my personal studies have focused on the periods surrounding the Constitution's ratification and the Great Depression. During my investigations, I am constantly bombarded by events, issues, and people that I never knew existed. To be sure, part of this is just closing gaps in my ignorance, of which there are many. But the frequency with which I run across items that are brand news to me has me wondering just how accurate, and truthful, US historians have been.

Recorded history is necessarily a sample drawn from the population of data that fully expresses a period in time. It is impossible to capture 'everything that happened' in archival form. As such, history relies on the recorder, the historian, capture a sense of what happened.

Because all people are different, historians will differ in which people, issues, and events they want to emphasize. Upbringing, religious beliefs, career aspirations, et al all shape interpretation. Institutional forces linked to social and political groups also exert pressures likely to influence historical analysis--particularly if the historians depend on institututional sources for their livelihood.

Historical accounts, then, are likely to reflect selective reasoning (perhaps even dishonesty) writ large, resulting in end products that are significantly biased.

Two conclusions seem evident. American history as expressed in social studies classes and textbooks is incomplete and biased--perhaps significantly so. Those interested in a more truthful historical account will have to work for it.

The big losers are kids who have yet to hone critical reasoning skills. They are easy targets for propaganda disguised as history.

The best we can do is to don those Horatio shades and proactively seek the truth.