The Bias of History: When Truth Becomes Subjective

Throughout the course of human events, it has become the widespread practice of many men and women to devote their lives to the study of the men, women, and associated civilizations that came before them; in short, the study of history. History in itself, for those that study it, presents the challenge of ascertaining the truth about the past. This process includes the discovery of such fundamental elements as how past civilizations made their living, where and what they used to provide for their basic needs, and what they chose to produce in their leisure time; all of which can generally be reached from observation of physical evidence and primary sources alone. However, the deeper and more complex studies of history involve such challenges of determining how individuals interacted with each other socially, how they communicated and determined social order, and what they valued as being “important” to their society. All of these elements involve not so much a simple dissection of physical evidence, but instead a lengthy process of analyzing that information to ascertain the truth. No matter sources are used, all of these subjects will eventually require the historian to make a truth claim about the subject, based on their study of the evidence they employ. This careful practice has become the cornerstone of our understanding of many ancient aspects of the ancient world; including religion, governance, and the arts.

In all areas of historical study, those who break new grounds of the past are responsible for the recording of events as they go. However, authors of historical scholarship are challenged with several disruptive factors which can inhibit their ability to effectively and accurately determine the most likely truth from t...

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...orical scholarship that can come from many different sources, all of which have a profound effect on the influence of evidence in making truth claims. It may be said in some cases that this bias distorts the validity of some truth claims, while having little to no effect upon others. However, it can clearly be recognized that the relationship between an authors assertions of truth and their evidence bases is directly dependent on the bias that they carry before they even begin their work. How much of an effect is up to the author, and how far they are willing to go to let their assertions be as close the real truth as can possibly be found in a work of history.

Works Cited

Aristotle, The Politics.

Herodotus, Histories, Book 2.

James Mellaart, A Neolithic City in Turkey, (San Francisco, CA: W.H. Freeman & Co., 1964).

Pliny, "Natural History," Chapter 19, Vol. 19.