"A historian must combine the rigor of a scientist with the imagination of the artist." To what extend, then, can the historian be confident about his or her conclusions?

A detailed Summary of "A historian must combine the rigor of a scientist with the imagination of the artist." To what extend, then, can the historian be confident about his or her conclusions?

"A historian must combine the rigor of a scientist with the imagination of the artist." To what extend, then, can the historian be confident about his or her conclusions?

History has always been a subject that is looked upon by many as a very controversial and biased one. In History people can have disagreements. One historian can believe that an event in the past happened in a certain way while another can think it happened differently. This is because history is a matter of interpretation as well as evidence, of judgement as well as knowledge. As a result of this historians must combine the rigor of a scientist with the imagination of an artist, to have the ability to produce a reasonable conclusion. Another historian however can challenge this conclusion. It is impossible to create a conclusion that every historian will agree with.

The problem with history, especially as a science, is that cause and effect can not always be clearly explained and understood. A science always evaluates the evidence in a certain way that everyone can agree with. Science does not leave any other possibilities open. There is always one answer in the end of why something happened. Cause and effect can be explained in a way that everyone has to agr

A historian must have the ability to distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources and put different pieces of evidence together to come up with a conclusion. The problem with history is that it is biased. It is difficult if not impossible to form a conclusion with no emotions involved, because history is the study of mankind. Even in Modern history, events that occurred in the recent past, all historians can not agree on the way events really took place. The invasion of Panama is an example of this. Evidence proved that Manuel Noriega, Panama's ruler at the time, was working for the FBI and was on the CIA payroll until 1987, despite the fact that he was known to be involved in drug trafficking, which is a serious crime in all countries. By January 1990 the administration of the canal was due to be handed over to Panama. Noriega's involvement with the US and co-operation has slowed down, which meant that the US would no longer have control over the canal (which was an important transportation medium) once it was handed over to Panama. First the US imposed economic sanctions to have Noriega overthrown, but as this failed, the US in a desperate attempt to remain in control over the canal, invaded Panama in 1889. Both the US and Panamanian government have different accounts of what happened and most of these accounts are even backed up by evidence. But how can there be evidence proving that an event occurred in two different ways. The United States said for instance that the number of people that were killed during the invasion in 1989 was approximately 600.This is in contrast to what the Mexican press reported, they conveyed the death number at 3000. This is biased reporting because the numbers of deaths in the United States are far less than the Mexican ones. The American government wanted to save it's reputation by giving the media false numbers. The Mexican government on the other hand saw this incident in Panama as a perfect opportunity to blacken the United States' reputation and gain sympathy of the outside countries. It is not surprising that there is such a tremendous difference between the sum of killed Panamanians according to the US government and the Panamanian government. They each want to come up with a version of the Invasion of Panama that is in favor of their own country.

The cause and effect theory is impossible to apply to histori

Some common words found in the essay are:
War Vietnamese, , Washington University, War Hitler's, Invasion Panama, Panama Noriega's, United Mexican, United States', FBI CIA, Vietnam War, imagination artist, cause effect, event occurred, effect explained, event past, conclusion historian, produce conclusion, evidence judgement, cause effect explained, panamanian government, happened happened history, explained understood, happened history matter, past happened happened, event past happened,

Approximate Word count = 1600
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous