Completely agree. I like Herodotus a lot, freckles and all. I personally think complete objectivity is like striving for the impossible, so I never hold the lack of it against him, or any contemporary historian (we’re all human after all.) At the same time, assuming we don’t have an agenda to push (though that in itself can be part of the history), it’s a very good thing to at least aim for objectivity. That, and getting your hands on as many different sources as possible (including from parallel disciplines like archaeology, but def not limited to it.) Maybe then we get close to a truth - at least a representative version of it for the time period or event, etc.
Completely agree. I like Herodotus a lot, freckles and all. I personally think complete objectivity is like striving for the impossible, so I never hold the lack of it against him, or any contemporary historian (we’re all human after all.) At the same time, assuming we don’t have an agenda to push (though that in itself can be part of the history), it’s a very good thing to at least aim for objectivity. That, and getting your hands on as many different sources as possible (including from parallel disciplines like archaeology, but def not limited to it.) Maybe then we get close to a truth - at least a representative version of it for the time period or event, etc.
yes absolutely, you completely hit the nail on the head there!