Historical Hindsight: Throwing out the Baby with the Bathwater

My posts seem to attract greater readership if I post them on Facebook as well as here. For long articles, I intend to do both from now on.
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In the discipline of history, hindsight is something of a problem. I mean, one can argue that the writing of history can never be objective, and that there are only different versions of history, no absolute Total History. That said, the historian must always be aware that he or she can be influenced, consciously or unconsciously, by the way that a given event unrolled itself in the course of history. One must do the best that they can to try to live in the moment of the event that one is researching, and not tend towards later views of the subject.

For example, during one of my fourth-year seminars, the majority of the class was incredulous as to why much of Europe would appease Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Well, the answer isn't so difficult, but we have to shed our knowledge of what followed, and this is difficult for many people. People in 1935 didn't know that a Second World War was coming, and the same is true of the Holocaust. What people were afraid of in 1935 was revolution, being a time of economic depression, and the major enemy in this respect was the Soviet Union. Nazi Germany for its flaws, seemed like an excellent counter to this threat. We also must remember, when Germany did begin to emerge as a threat, the effect which the Great War had on public opinion and rearmament.

My point is, one must try to be as objective as possible when dealing with historical events. To project a present belief into the past is called anachronism. This is one of my major issues with feminist historians, at least the ones that look for oppression wherever they can find it. I'm not saying that oppression didn't exist, I'm just saying that it's easy to find it, if that's what you want to find. This is not good history. We should look at the information and then decide, not the other way around. Now on to tarring with the same brush.

"Fan of social healthcare? Congratulations, you are also against assault weapons." - Jon Stewart

It happens, but it doesn't have to. I'll be brief; being interested in people like Joseph Stalin doesn't mean that you favor totalitarian governments or work camps. Don't confuse a historian with their research matter. Enough said.