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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Historians have been grappling with the issues raised in this excerpt for decades involving how we interpret documents and construct narratives about the past. Differences in interpretation persist no matter how many new documents are produced or how close to the present they were created. Historians disagree as much about the 1990s as the 1790s.
Only the most naive would think that photographs can make something definitively true; photos and video are merely new kinds of documents that people will disagree on. There is nothing particularly special about the biases and interpretation of visual media that we haven't already been dealing with for generations.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
