Historical evidence and argument

by David P. Henige

"Historians know about the past because they examine the evidence. But what exactly is "evidence," and how do historians know what it means? What about when scholars disagree over the interpretation, or even the authenticity, of a piece of evidence? Such questions have become more important than ever with the emergence of new techniques, new evidence, and increasingly passionate debates over historical politics." "Historian David Henige tackles these and other issues of historical reliability head-on in his skeptical, unsparing, and acerbically witty Historical Evidence and Argument. "Systematic doubt" is his watchword, and he practices what he preaches through a variety of insightful assessments of historical controversies - for example, over the dating of artifacts, or the textual analysis of translated documents. Doubt, Henige contends, forces us to recognize the limits of our knowledge, but is also a positive force that stimulates new scholarship to counter it."--Jacket.