History- An account of facts, particularly respecting nations or states; that branch of
knowledge which details with the past events; narration; a story; an account of existing things.
This is the definition of the word history from Webster's Expanded Dictionary, 1991. Today the
word history often has a certain haze around it. It is often one of the most disputed things in the
world today. One would think by looking at the definition, "An account of facts," that this
would be some simple idea to follow. After all, there is no computing, numbers, dissecting, or
anything else like one would expect to find in math and science. Instead, it is even more
challenging because there is often times when history is disputed due to the fact that there are
several different "eye-witness" accounts that greatly differ from each other for the same events.
To show this, and try to give a better understanding of the word history, the following materials
will be used: the essay entitled "Indians" by Jane Tompkins, and the documentary, Mr. Death-
The Rise and Fall of Fred Leuchter, Jr. directed by Errol Morris.
Tompkins essay deals with her research of the Indian life. She bases her
research on authors who have written books with supposed " first-hand accounts."
Tompkins begins her research with Perry Miller, and his book "Errand into the
Wilderness." Here Tompkins is trying to show the point that Indians were just ignored as
settlers from England poured into the new continent. She uses Miller as an example.
When Miller was on his adventures into Africa, Miller just ignored the people already
living there, and just using them as slaves. Tompkins compares this to how the Indians
were treated when the English settlers arrived in North America. "What is invisible to the
historian in his own historical moment remains invisible when he turns hi...