People who disparage history, the writing about the past, calling it "bunk" or "a tissue of lies," seem to assume that a true history, the actuality of what happened, exists somewhere out there, hidden beneath the stories we've been told. Their criticism implies that more diligent scholars and story-tellers than Tolstoy and Plutarch and Francis Parkman, could find the actual past and reproduce it if they really tried. 

They seem unaware that the past doesn't exist. Yesterday is gone. It's not out there to be found. All we have are stories about what happened, guesses derived from the examination of bones and stones and stories. The selection and interpretation of the artifacts necessarily reflect opinions current when the historians develop their stories. We have no idea what ancient Greek sounded like. There is no way to find out. The sounds we make when we read the writings of Aristotle and Plato are the inventions of scholars, not replications of actual sounds that have forever disappeared. 

History gives us the assurance that we are part of a long chain of meaningful events affecting the lives of people who are now dead. It serves our desire to know what happened before we got here. It helps us understand what we have. It cannot possibly be true to the actuality of the past, but it is the result of disciplined scholarship. It’s the best we can do, and it deserves our respect.

Jim Ingraham