If someone understands history differently than you then they are wrong and you are right. There can be only one objective historical truth and that is the one we ourselves embrace (or a group claiming authority embraces). That’s the take away I am getting.

Pixie suggested, and I paraphrase, everyone brings magical thinking to their observations, a POV which we may not be aware of, or at best, struggle to filter out. I believe this to be the case in virtually everything we humans do. Mathematics may be the exception if all the boundary conditions are determined, and yet, even here, rigorous proofs sometimes fall apart.

All history is interpretation. The professional (and gifted amateur) historian painstakingly reconstructs from the very best data available at a fixed point in time. Things, however, can change (new data, new methods, new witnesses). As to the original question - if it is entertainment it should always be labeled as such (“yes, folks we took some dramatic liberties because we think we are better storytellers than Homer”). If it is presented as History it must be, as Westie said, scrupulously documented in a way that anyone can check the sourcing.

Congratulations if you read this far. 

Indeed, history is something that happens to other people.

Quote from: SV52 on 18 June 2018, 11:15:22 AM
Indeed, history is something that happens to other people.

Surely it is something that 'happened' to other people? :- :-

Quote from: mollinary on 18 June 2018, 01:41:04 PM
Surely it is something that 'happened' to other people? :- :-

Here's another historical conundrum. Some people have set off a bomb; they are terrorists! Some women called Suffragettes set fire to letter boxes, smashed windows in churches and other things besides; weren't they wonderful - we must celebrate them.

Quote from: mollinary on 18 June 2018, 01:41:04 PM
Surely it is something that 'happened' to other people? :- :-

Don't blame me, it's a quote from somebody called 'Anonymous'

Quote from: Leman on 19 June 2018, 09:46:37 AM
Here's another historical conundrum. Some people have set off a bomb; they are terrorists! Some women called Suffragettes set fire to letter boxes, smashed windows in churches and other things besides; weren't they wonderful - we must celebrate them.

"Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason? Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason." - John Harington

Why not, everyone else does?

Dr Who has been messing with history since the 60s!

Well actually since long befoe that. I remember the documentary when he went back to see Robin Hood.

Quote from: Leman on 19 June 2018, 09:46:37 AM
Here's another historical conundrum. Some people have set off a bomb; they are terrorists! Some women called Suffragettes set fire to letter boxes, smashed windows in churches and other things besides; weren't they wonderful - we must celebrate them.

They were called terrorists and worse at the time. As were the Tolpuddle Martyrs, the Abolitionists and indeed anyone who threatens the status quo and the ruling elite of the time. Doesn't mean they were wrong, doesn't mean they're right. Just propaganda against change, label them as perjoratively as possible and demonise them.

Ofc that rather devalues the terms when you hit the real assholes.

Quote from: toxicpixie on 20 June 2018, 12:35:49 PM
They were called terrorists and worse at the time. As were the Tolpuddle Martyrs, the Abolitionists and indeed anyone who threatens the status quo and the ruling elite of the time. Doesn't mean they were wrong, doesn't mean they're right. Just propaganda against change, label them as perjoratively as possible and demonise them.

Ofc that rather devalues the terms when you hit the real assholes.

I think leaving bombs in railway stations constitutes terrorism, you may not of course. There is an argument that the suffragettes put back women's votes for years.

Well I think we all know that it was the peaceful persistence of the Suffragists, plus the impact of women's contribution in WWI that actually got them the vote, and not the suffragettes' shenanigans.