Finally got around to listening to the infamous Tucker-Darryl conversation (not before blasting out my opinion about it lol).

Damn it’s good. Fantastic.

Remember that when studying history, some questions can be settled via appeal to facts—did this or that happen? Who precisely was involved? Was this order given at this time? Such factual questions need to be super-specific, and most historical debates aren’t about those at all.

When it comes to the questions of “why”, “what were the consequences”, “what was the goal”, “to what did someone react”, “who is to blame” etc., we are squarely in the realm of narratives.

Except for limit cases, narratives can only ever illuminate aspects of history, aspects of the story (if they are grounded at least in some truth). Which also means that different narratives are often not mutually exclusive. Some might turn out to be more important than others, but in the end, we need to hold many narratives in mind simultaneously to get closer to historical truth.

So, is Churchill the reason for WWII? Or Britain? Or Hitler? Or Stalin? Did Britain enter the war to destroy Germany, to weaken the continent, to strengthen patriotism, to treacherously move the empire’s center to the US, to contain Stalin, to help Stalin devastate Europe…? Did Hitler make peace offers to…, to…., or to…?

Let everybody make their case, tell their story, present their narrative. If these are grounded in study of the sources and made by a reasonably intelligent person who can mentally transport himself back in time, it’s almost always worthwhile to hear the case.

Then, keep all these different narratives in mind, shuffle them around, let them settle into place. Use all your life experience and knowledge about today’s world and dynamics to assess those narratives, to experience in your mind the conflicting motivations people and their leaders had in the past, and how those might have played out. Dig into the sources and/or well-sourced secondary literature, with that understanding in mind. Read between the lines.

You’ll never come to the full truth—for that you would need to be God, knowing every person’s mind at the time you study, and then some. But it will become clearer over time, light bulbs will go on, and you’ll come out of it wiser.