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Re: Eagle Days: Life and Death for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain
The interpretation comes in two forms that I can think of offhand:
1. In inferring the links between data that is inevitably incomplete (much as an archaeologist ‘reconstructs’ a broken vase or a mosaic, drawing on the pieces they have and on their accumulated knowledge of similar objects). Bridging the gaps, in other words.
2. Putting forward a hypothesis consistent with all the available data — scientific method.
The point in either case is that you do not pretend to certainty but acknowledge openly what you are doing, so that others may assess the evidence and come to their own conclusions.
Historians do not simply amass facts, they also try to find meaning in them.
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