ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines aspects of historians’ work, as well as the multiple purposes that influence history in school and out. Shifting the focus of the history curriculum to a pluralist perspective presents a more inclusive and authentic vision of the futures available to all students. Studying a range of perspectives helps students understand discrimination, marginalization, and opposition, as well as power and privilege. The historical record is more often incomplete than contradictory, though, and so we must piece together fragments of information to construct a complete description. This inevitably involves speculation, because some facts can never be recovered. The colonists eventually declare their independence, a war results, and the colonists are victorious. This historical episode has a structure similar to any narrative, fictitious or otherwise—a setting, characters, a problem, and a resolution. The combination of interpretation and importance makes for a volatile mix.
