A synopsis of Margaret McMillan’s line of argument in the book The Uses and Abuses of History
History, by giving context and examples, helps when it comes to thinking about the present world. It aids in formulating questions, and without good questions it is difficult to begin to think in a coherent way at all. Knowledge of history suggests what sort of information might be needed to answer questions. Experience teaches how to assess that information. As they look at the past, historians learn to behave like a magistrate who asks what happened and why.
History demands that we treat evidence seriously, especially when that evidence contradicts assumptions we have already made. We need to ask the crunch questions:
- Are these witnesses telling the truth?
- How do we weigh one version against another?
- Have we been asking the right or the only questions?
Historians go further and ask what a
