Eagle Days: Life and Death for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain

[edwest2]

Originally Posted by Jukka Juutinen

Indeed, bollocks you wrote. You have completely misunderstood what I wrote. Just ask any university trained historian (by the way, I am not an academic) as to what are the cornerstones of scientific history writing. I have quoted and am quoting simply what professional academic historians consider the duties of a professional historian.

If edwest2's post was so true, what do you think would happen to historiography of say ancient Roman history? Documentary evidence is very fragmented at best and if one cannot speculate on anything, writing a coherent history becomes impossible. Even lots of WW2 political history requires speculation because there is no documentation on everything.

What does ancient Roman history have to do with anything here? We would have zero Roman history if it was not recorded by someone. And even in those cases, we don't know what was left out. Are we going to begin discussing Livy and Tacitus here? If we read that the Romans had occupied a city, but don't know why, what to do? Guess?

WW2 political history? Are you kidding? Just like today, a lot of politics happens in secret. The public is not fully informed.

There is no documentation on everything? So what? That does not justify guessing or making broad statements that may appear factual but are just assumptions.

As more documents are uncovered, more pieces of the puzzle get added. But it takes time. One of the biggest problems among some online is the thought that everything will be uncovered in a short period of time. And by short, I mean a few days at the most.

Look at some of the most praised books here. How long did it take to collect the information and put it into a book or series of books? 10, 20 and 30 years.

The internet gives the false impression that quick and easy applies.

No one starts as a "university trained historian." Everyone starts as an amateur with a desire to be a professional historian. University training includes where to find references that apply to the subject. The student needs to submit a paper, with the necessary references, to earn a degree.

I have seen a handful of these papers and find them lacking in terms of covering the subject matter in depth. The writing is usually stilted and awkward. It requires discipline to go through the boring and uninteresting stuff before you get to those parts that interest you personally. It also requires a commitment to continue. Without that commitment, the student, degree or not, may decide that being a historian is not for him.

That said, I have seen too many books by academic publishers that focus on some uninteresting aspect of a subject or that focus on certain things to set them into a wider context. Now there may be something of interest in those books but I'm not going to pay $190 USD to find out.