What History do you know? Now, that is an interesting question. Napoleon had probably the best short definition when he said “History is the version of past events that people have agreed upon.” We all have experienced the situation where folks don’t agree. Sometimes that disagreement leads to a war.

Then the folks say that the winners write the history. I prefer one historian’s caveat that it is not the winners but the survivors who do the writing. That leads to at least two historical versions. For instance, an English version of our revolutionary war reads more like a civil war.

Then, of course there is even more specific history called genealogy. Almost by accident I know about my father’s line to 1735 in Austria. I don’t know when or where my maternal grandfather was born. However, that is basically a matter of searching records for birth, marriage and deaths rather than interpretations of the whys and hows of events.

Aside from the tedium of remembering dates of battles and other tedium they seem to teach in school, history can be fascinating. There was a biography of William Shakespeare I read recently. What I learned was how little we actually know about Shakespeare, the man, who was probably a celebrity in his day.

For sure we know a lot about the plays most, but not all, agree that he wrote. There is even one, Cardinio, that was played before Queen Elizabeth I, but no copy has ever been found. We have records of his baptism on April 26, 1564 that translates to April 23 for his birth date) and 54 years later he died on the same date.

We know very little about the intervening years. In some of those years he was completely lost to history. We know he was in a players group and acted and wrote in London. We have an idea of what he looked like from three likenesses. However, one is not certain it is of him and the other two were made long after his death. There are less than ten copies of his handwriting. There are many other unknowns.

On the contrary, there are untold many examinations of his plays. Minutia like the number of words, commas and other details are abundant. His poetry is also fully examined and questioned. Some of the historical accuracy of his plays could be questioned, notably his Richard the Third.

This is but a brief example of how history can be confusing if one asks what really happened back then. Some say Paul Revere didn’t really ride; he was put in jail before he could get away. Oh, for sure he was involved and some other guys did ride but it was not Paul. The other guy’s name did not rhyme with that first line “listen my children and you shall hear…” the name that rhymed was Revere. This is to say most history has some subjectivity as well as fact.