Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-06-23
WRITING WAR HISTORY.

A Berne dispatch announces that a
OF historians is being formed for the purpose Of
writing and editing an authentic history Of the
great. world war, and the reason given for the tax
ing OF this step is that each attempt to approach the
task from an individualistic and nationalistic view
point is doomed in advance because it can never re-
suit IN a correct and unbiased presentation of facts.
This may be true, but it also would be true
that the absolutely correct history Of that war can
not be written during the present generation, for
the necessary distance from the events would be
lacking, and, therefore, the perspective most likely
would be at too close range.
What can be done, and what actually is being
done. is to compile the documentary facts and leave
the deductions to be made therefrom to later-and
calmer-generations. Any decisive Interpretation
OF the events of the war must necessarily be de-
ferred until some future time.
At the present time there are all sorts of pur-
ported histories, but, as a general rule, they are of
comparatively little value. The source material1is
to be dug out OF the military and naval archives,
the diplomatic collections of notes and memoranda.
and-most important-out of the numerous "tne-
mo1rs' written by those men who took actual cart
in directing the fate of the world during the great
test.
In the memoirs the student will find what is
ordinarily called the background, and that serves
the purpose of bringing the pictures of moving
masses of men into sharper relief. 1t is true, that
such books must be read with a great deal Of care,
and that an elaborate checking up' is necessary,
but If that work is undertaken during the present
generation, it seems possible that a heritage of we'll
.dd'gested facts can be left to the historians Of the
future.
In the literature Of pre-war war: and postwar
memoirs more than a "~hve-foot shelf" of volumes
has already been produced, and the number seems
to be about equally divided between the leaders Of
the campaign of the Central Powers and those who
directed the armies Of the Allies Just now books
written by the deposed emperor and crown prince
OF Germany apparently are in great demand
The memoirs of the crown prince are not ahis-
tory" in a strict and scientific sense, but rather in
teresting s~ideiights on the events as he, from the
vantage point where birth and dynastic privileges
had placed him, witnessed them. But his fathers
work IS meant as a serious attempt to explain the
complicated causes of the conflict.
Both of these books will be placed ALONGSIDE
all the others from other countries; historians must
needs consider them, and in what remains tine after
a careful scrutiny has been made, one Of the nurrner-
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