Denying History
Based on this book, how do historians "know things" about the past? What are the essential tools they use, and are these tools applicable in other arenas?
Based on the book Denying History. Answer in deep details.
Based on the book Denying History. Answer in deep details.
History is, in large part, subjective, because it is reliant upon the historian who has studied, recorded and interpreted it. There is not one history of any event; there are many individual histories that come together to make the history of an event, or a time period. To make a proper history of the Holocaust, a historian would need to visit the death camps for herself; she would need to speak to survivors of the camps, survivors of Hitler's Reich who spent the key war years in hiding. Eye witness accounts from those in German occupied countries, such as Poland and Romania would be studied; there are accounts from German soldiers, German guards, SS captains and Allied forces who liberated the camps. There are the accounts of those who lived near the camps and turned a blind eye, and those who lived nearby and tried to help. To build a comprehensive history one must look at the event from all angles. However, this is not necessary in order to prove that an event happened, but to gain as complete a picture of the event as possible.