![]() ![]() Similarly, there are some narratives that are closer to the truth than others, and we must always try to tell a story that comes as close to the truth as is humanly possible. The Earth is neither a perfect sphere nor a flat disk, but the model of the sphere is much closer to the truth. But it is not true that just because all narratives are constructed, that they are equally far from the truth. Yes, it is true that no nation, and no historian, can tell a story that completely encompasses every aspect of the truth. We are a species that loves narrative, but we have also been taught not to trust an individual speaker. One has to be careful, whenever one tells a story about a great injustice. History has always been difficult because of the delicacy of the truth, and denialists have always been able to resort to labeling the truth as fiction. Perhaps that is why, although we academics are supposedly in the business of pursuing the truth, the word “truth” is rarely uttered without hedges, adornments, and qualifications.Įvery time we tell a story about a great atrocity, like the Holocaust or Pingfang, the forces of denial are always ready to pounce, to erase, to silence, to forget. ![]() ![]() But truth is delicate, and it has many enemies. ![]() “History is a narrative enterprise, and the telling of stories that are true, that affirm and explain our existence, is the fundamental task of the historian. ![]()
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