"It Might Express the Idea That All History Is Revisionist"

"And politics makes memory. So does the formal study and writing of history, of course, but the relationship between the discipline of history and memory—or broadly shared cultural assumptions—is complicated. Conventional wisdom shapes historians, who often reinforce it with their work; on the other hand, many challenge it by marshaling evidence and arguments that, on occasion, change the public mind and seep back into politics. I don't mean, then, that we need a historiography museum, but one that traces the intertwining of the popular imagination and the professional study of history. It would go beyond the question, 'What happened?' to ask 'How did we come to believe that this is what happened?' The answer to the latter can be just as important as to the first."

T. J. Stiles at History News Network calls for a "Museum of the History of American History."