On history

I would define true history as the verifiable record of the past. However I would define the subject of history as the search for the truth about how we as a race or rather as vague conglomerate of intelligent beings got where we are today. This process of finding the truth can be messy and life consuming but is usually rewarding to society as a whole. Our past is important; because our past defines us, drives us, and changes us. I personally feel that history does not that repeat but history does have recurring themes: war, hunger, germs, mass death, growth, evolution of technology, rediscovery of technology, spread of science, religion and other worldviews etc. These themes can be used to predict the growth, spread and changes of and in the humanity of the future. The authors are including opinions (or hypotheses), in their writings. However, when they subject of their writing is commonly disputed, they try to show several sides of the argument. For instance, the origins of the 9,000-year-old man (pg. 5) found in Kennewick, Washington; the writers said that some historians thought he was from Europe whilst another scientist/historian suggested that the man could be from Asia. It is often difficult to extract the truth of our past from the ground, stones, and journals left behind, as such, hypotheses based on small amounts of evidence must sometimes be formed and reformed as our understanding of the past grows. “History is an argument”, to me this statement recognize the fact that what really happened in the past is not always easily agreed on, and as such historians will disagree. I agree that history is not set in stone (so to speak), but is fluid; what we believe happened in the past is apt to change, grow, and generally develop.  This change normally happens because new evidence comes to light, or a new way to look at old evidence is developed. Do to the nature of change and the way we (as humans) tend to react to it, there will be at the edge of every change dissenters who disagree with the change (and maybe for good reason). End part II