Are History Books Reliable

George Santayana, a Spanish philosopher once said “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This quote is the reason why history is such an important subject for schools not only in the United States, but throughout the world. Although most students take what is in their history books as fact, the reality is that sometimes history books are not one hundred percent reliable. That is why it is so important for us to understand what happens behind the scenes of what goes into our history books. For history to be accurately retold, historians need to gather all available information possible and are counted upon to fill in the blanks of their source material.

Historians play a crucial role when producing history because

As Davidson and Lytle see it, “History is not only constructed, it is continually in need of reconstruction.” A good example of this is the death of Silas Deane. Old evidence suggested that he committed suicide because there was plausible evidence that supported the conclusion that Silas Deane had taken his own life. However evidence that had not really been explored shows the opposite. Letters show that Deane was actually very optimistic about returning to the United States after being in exile. Other evidence also shows that there is reason to believe that his old friend Edward Bancroft would want Deane dead. The problem is that there is not enough evidence to determine whether or not Silas Deane killed himself or if he was murdered and there may never be enough. Another example of new evidence causing historians to reevaluate past interpretations is the Salem Witch Trials. During the time period, citizens of Salem witnessed young girls having symptoms that no doctor at the time could explain. Their thought at the time meant that these symptoms were due to witchcraft. Now, we know that one of the things that was happening to these girls was hysterical compulsion attacks which had a lot of the symptoms that the girls in Salem had. As a society, we naturally evolve and gather more information so naturally, things that were previously unknown will eventually be known. Even though the past is constant, history is always