24. Why is history considered to be an interpretation of facts and events?

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The first audience of history were people that just liked an interesting story. History could also explain why or how things happened the way they did without moral teachings getting in the way. By doing this people would hopefully learn from their mistakes and not make them again. There are six basic reasons for this; Knowledge of the past is incomplete, records an be lost or destroyed, such as Alexandria, there is bias in all historical records, nobody can learn everything about a particular time or period, historians must pick and choose what information to include and what to leave out, and lastly, presentation. Most historical narratives contain a complicated element of interpretation that cannot be taken out. The historical record we have has both too much and too little. There are always more facts than the historian can handle, so he must “Interpret” and only keep the facts that are most important to the historian at the time. At the same time, the historian must fill in the gaps of information he left when he/she took only some information. Therefore, a historical narrative is filled with both well-explained events and events that are not well explained. This could cause us to question the accuracy of the narrative and whether it represents the reality of that time.

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