Historical Bias

There are two sides to every story. Parents, students with siblings, or even school faculty can attest to the statement that when someone is to blame in a situation, there can be two or more very different stories as to how the problem arose. Usually it is a matter of “he said she said” and depending on the situation, you pick the story that either sounds most accurate to you or that you want to believe. You may think that this is something that just happens at this day in age, but this occurs everywhere and has occurred over time. This is called historical bias. This paper will investigate ways to avoid historical bias, how historical bias may affect how we think about our past, and other examples of historical bias. First, avoiding historical bias may be hard but it is not impossible. There are many things one can do to make an accurate decision or even a compromise of all the stories and find the truth. First, one should get all the facts. Sit down and compare the stories and find supporting evidence to support your decisions. Second, find first hand accounts from each party involved. It would be even better to find a neutral party that took no part in the disagreement. This would help one see a story that doesn’t have any emotional attachment to the situation. Therefore, avoiding historical bias is a bit difficult but is very much possible. Not only is historical bias avoidable, but also it affects how we view our past. Look back at just about every war in history. There is always a definite winner and loser. And, depending on which side the author of the document you are referring to was on, there is a specific story behind it. But look back at World War Two. American textbooks are going to tell the story in a very different way than, lets say, a German textbook would say. There is so much historical bias because authors that produce documents that are more in their opinion as opposed to strictly factual. Then, more and more people believe the same thing.