Well, even that has a historical bias.*tongue emoticon*Is it possible to read a historical text WITHOUT our current way of thinking injecting itself into our interpretations of it? One thing I like to do when I get deep into it, is see how different historians interpreted history from THEIR perspectives in _their_ times. What biases can I see? For example, how did 16th century view the Medieval times? After all, they were closer in time to it than us. What assumptions did they hold? What were their biases? Or, how did 4th century Greeks view the Romans? How did 4th century Romans view the Greeks? Stuff like that. And it becomes a "he said, she said" situation that extends throughout the whole span of time. And the more different perspectives you get, the more the gaps start to fill in. I knew NOTHING of the period of time between 5th century AD and 15th century AD except for knights and plague and maybe an Islamic mathematician. But then I joined the Greek Orthodox church for a few years just for the heck of it in my mid 20s. Suddenly, a whole NEW view of history blossomed. I found out that a LOT happened n that time frame. A lot happened that was at the height of culture and infliuence. I learned about the Christianizatoin of Russia from their perspective... I learned some of the deep thinkers of the time, which consisted of monks (male and female) living in the deserts and caves, expounding their views on human nature and such from their perspectives. And there was no backwardness. There was no illiteracy. There was no stupidity. SUCH a different view than anything I learned before. parts of the world GLOWED with new knowledge. I started getting an understanding that this Rome that i thought was SUCH a big deal, was like, eh, oh yeah, the Latins, yeah them, from the Eastern perspective. I'm still missing parts. China I'm ignorant of in most ways.* I also want to learn more of history from an Islamic perspective. I know the Byzantine perspective pretty well - and they actually got along rather nicely 'til Rome got jealous and wanted rich Byzantinum for themselves and started a lot of fighting.* Anyway, the more stuff you pick up from different POV, you no longer get these nice easy straight lines that go from A event to B event but rather you get a feel for large groups of people, not so different from each other, pushing and pulling but MOSTLY trying to get along when they weren't fighting. And it puts you there. Getting up in the morning. Stretching. Pooping in a hole in the floor in another room that leads to the ground to be washed away by a town septic system and you go about your day, and life isn't that bad. [1]kenneth-udut-reading-your-writing-is-fascinating Thanks*grin emoticon*I write best when I'm annoyed a little by the culture I was raised in and live in, and I get passionate about defending a lesser-heard point of view. References Visible links 1. http://icopiedyou.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/kenneth-udut-reading-your-writing-is-fascinating.jpg