History, as a discipline of study, is the examination of historical documents (not only the official documents such as manifestos, constitutions, and public records -- licenses, arrest records, awards, and the like, but also public news reports, contemporary commentaries, private correspondences, and the like), to form a comprehensive and accurate description ("picture") of the period of time and place of action being examined and summarized. This should be done as "objectively" as is possible -- that is, from a balanced and fair viewpoint, without any personal bias, omission of facts not supportive of one's point of view, not reflective of the historian's personal"feelings" about the event. For example, when discussing the American Civil War, the historian should be objective about his/her view of slavery, or his/her view of war itself. Objective historical commenting, then is expected by the reader and demanded by the discipline's ethics. Exceptions are made for personal views in autobiographies, and other times, when the history writer's viewpoint is the whole point of the writing.
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