Is History True?
Is History True?
Anh Phuong Nguyen
History 1302, Section 447
Dr. David Blanke
September 4, 2008
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Is History True?
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Is History True?
Everyone has the originality, and it is the foundation for us to become what we are today.
If we trace back to the past, we will figure out our surprising family tree that we may not know
or ever believe it had occurred. It is the same about world history generally. Historians work hard
to find out our ancestor, the creation and development of the world. However, their works are
based on what is studied in archaic papers and antiques, which cannot prove exactly the truth and
cannot explain clearly about some strange phenomenon in the old days. A big question is raised
all over the world: Is history that we study in school and know in historical documents absolute?
According to Oscar Handlin from Truth in History (1979), history reflects the truth and based on
the obvious evidences. In contrast, William McNeil, from “Mythistory, or Truth, Myth, History,
and Historians”, American Historical Review (1986) argued that truth is more likely a myth and
distinguished by different groups in different situation at different time.
Oscar Handlin blames that the historical truth is absolute and knowable. It is the useful
knowledge that everybody should know about and can be put in other scientific fields. Knowing
the past is a way to solve the present problems, such as pollution, population, poverty, etc. He
believes that studying history will also help us to discover the truth and understand more of
ourselves. History is a subject that is based on the facts from the past and has a solid foundation.
Because historians gather the historical information from different sources in different places, it
interprets our different behavior, culture which is originated from our ancestors. Furthermore,
studying history is studying a new language to compare the human communication in the past
with one in nowadays. Although there are the problems about bias and perspective in history,
historian is able to accomplish their job successfully of expressing what had actually happened.
Is History True?
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History represents the events in the past and is descended from one generation to another as the
strongest evidence of the truth in the old days.
Contrary to Handlin’s ideas, William McNeil claims that the truths of history are too
general to understand, and they abstract the spatial specific arrangement from the common one.
It is the view of a historian, and the others may have different ideas about one event in the past.
History and myth, according to him, are close relationship which are all based on stories, a
phenomenon in the past. While myth is false, history becomes true because of historian’s own
view of something being real, rejecting other theories. In fact, people who believe the historical
truth try to create a believable and trustful environment to sweep away the confusion among the
people.
Both authors have the same point of view that historical achievement is a fact, and the
uses of it depend on the integrity of the record. Handlin thinks that some scholars have reduced
truth to an instrument, which leads to the misuse of real nature of history in the end. In
accordance with McNeil’s argument, truth is one’s belief based on what they know and what
they are told. However, historians haven’t finished their task yet because they just give people
their opinion and the facts which aren’t convincing enough to be believed. Handlin agrees that
history is an ancient discipline, because history is a series of acceptance of the difference
between facts and interpretation and that is what people should be aware of.
History is a part of our life, and we all have the right to know about the truth no matter
how it is. The truth is built in the facts, grounded on convincing argument. We all accept and
depend on them to develop a society as it was used to be with better improvement. Historians
have to do many different studies and researches to conclude an event and give us a deeper
thought about the past and the true ourselves. People continue to suspect if history is true or false
Is History True?
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but in some means, they still use history as a tool for their work and in other scientific fields.
Once a truth is discovered, it has to go through a lot of scholar’s argument in order to complete
the theory with the closest facts. Therefore, we have a belief that the truth is absolute. That is the
foundation of every society, every country, and every family in the world.