answer these questions-
Who killed JFK?
Why did Spartacus turn back when he had a clear escape route back to his homeland? We can speculate, but we’ll probably never have a definitive answer.
Who defaced the hermai throughout Athens on the eve of the Sicilian Expedition in 415 BC, and why? This was a significant factor in how one of the biggest conflicts of ancient history worked out, and the person blamed for the desecration likely didn’t do it.
Who killed Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey in 1678 and why? The murder fueled severe persecution of Catholics in England for decades, and almost certainly affected royal succession.
Who was Jack the Ripper?
Where is the tomb of Anthony and Cleopatra?
What on earth is the Voynich Manuscript? Is it really written in a secret language, and can that language be “cracked”? Or is it a hoax? And if so, WHY would someone go through the trouble of creating a hoax so highly elaborate?
Who was DB Cooper, and did he survive the jump? If not, where is his body. (Eaten by animals and bones scattered, probably, but we don’t know that for a fact.)
Answers
During my research I read a book that I found disturbing. The book was by the historian, E. H. Carr. In What Is History? (1961) Carr addresses the problem of the politically motivated historian. He points out that the historian is likely to only write about subjects he/she cares about. In the words of another historian, W. H. B. Court: "History free of all values cannot be written. Indeed, it is a concept almost impossible to understand, for men will scarcely take the trouble to inquire laboriously into something which they set no value upon."
Carr argues that the historian starts off with a theory that needs to be tested by the evidence. The theory will reflect the political views of the historian. Carr makes the important point about the nature of the facts that the historian uses: "The facts are really not at all like fish on the fishmonger's slab. They are like fish swimming about in a vast and sometimes inaccessible ocean; and what the historian catches will depend, partly on chance, but mainly on what part of the ocean he chooses to fish in and what tackle he chooses to use – these two factors being, of course, determined by the kind of fish he wants to catch. By and large, the historian will get the kind of facts he wants. History means interpretation."