My philosophy about history is fairly simple and this is what I try to instill in students taking my class that are striving to become historians. I am a thorough believer that history is open to interpretation and varies depending on the eye of the beholder. This means that at times, my beliefs may contradict one of the authors of the textbooks. It may mean that your opinion differs from mine. Having said this, you should understand the following about history.
History is that branch of knowledge, which records and explains past events.
However, history does not exist without inquiry and interpretation. It is essential that some facts be remembered, as they are the raw material of all historical study. The greater part of the historical process is the systematic process of gathering, ordering, and evaluating material in order to make sense out of the inert data of the past. In this course, my goal is to have you engage in both parts of the historical process. You will be asked to remember certain historical facts.