Hardly a pure science, history is closer to animal husbandry than it is to mathematics in that it involves selective breeding. The principal difference between the husbandryman and the historian is that the former breeds sheep or cows or such and the latter breeds (assumed) facts. The husbandryman uses his skills to enrich the future, the historian uses his to enrich the past. Both are usually up to their ankles in bullshit. .Tom Robbins
About This Quote
History is a broad and diverse subject. The historian or storyteller, as it were, has a wide range of tools at their disposal to gather and present information. Many of these tools require the historian to deal with many assumptions and untested suppositions. This is often called "bullshit" as historians often use those tools to cover up their own uncertainty about certain events or people.
Source: Another Roadside Attraction
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