I know a lot of historians think that Diamond is way off the mark as well. History is one of those feilds where polotics and opinion mean a lot more than fact anyway.
Well no, not precisely. It can be easily be said there is no fact in history, rather there is interpretation of events and information. So history IS opinion--or better INTERPRETATION--by learned individuals.
There are some things you can know, and others that depend on who wrote the history. I have first hand experience with this where many historians have written that Native Americans had no writing and no history, and that just was not the case.
For a long time custer was considered by history to have been very brave and a good warior. As it turns out he wasn't.
You can't beleive everything you read, but you also can't allways trust the "experts" when it comes to a topic like history. Especialy when so many of them disagree.
All of this can be summed up with the term "critical thinking." Learning to read critically is one of the most important things I learned in pursuit of my History BA. Certainly historians disagree, but that's the beauty of history; one can look at the evidence and make conclusions or interpretations, and that evidence or your argument can be challenged, forcing you (or others) to re-interperet or gather more evidence to support your argument. The result is (hopefully) a more thorough or solid view of history. Some people label this "revisionist" like its a dirty word, but having read some of the works put out by Victorian or even earlier I'm glad history has been reinterpreted since then. Your Custer example is a perfect fit of this. It wasn't because the original historians have been disqualified, but because others have stepped forward and suggested that the evidence doesn't fit the conclusions.
Whenever reading history, the most important questions you must ask is a) what is this writer's bias, b) what sources or evidence does he use to support his argument, and c) do these sources or evidence pan out?
Damon.
------------------------------------------------------------ Damon Agretto [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum." Now Building: Esci/Italeri's M60A1 Patton ------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
