I’m not sure insisting that the past can be known or that we should focus on “how it actually was” is the most helpful way to deal with blatantly factless stories. Instead, I would call for the more difficult path of cultivating greater discernment when it comes to speaking or hearing history in the public sphere. Unsurprisingly, I think part of the solution lies in history education – in emphasizing the importance of evidence (over opinion), plausibility (over truth), and complexity (over simplicity) in the interpretation of history.
However, I do wonder if Smith’s insistence on leaving aside storytelling and the significance of historical phenomena, and pursuing history as “an arbiter of truth” actually exacerbates the issue instead of mending it. To suggest that we can pursue historical truth without storytelling belies the nature of historical evidence and promotes the uncritical division of historical claims into “truth” or “not truth” (storytelling, for Smith).
Heather L. Bennett Posts
So, I complained just yesterday that Calder and Steffes, the authors of white paper on history from the Measuring College Learning project, didn’t seem concerned with…
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Here-in lies my only critique of the otherwise immensely useful summary and white paper: Calder and Steffes implicitly view the core history concepts and competencies they suggest as the reserve of history majors. They seem to have little concern for how the suggested foci might function within general education history courses.
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