Historian: The only evidence we have for claims about the past exists in the present  How things actually occurred is beyond our knowledge  Historians construct coherent stories that explain the available evidence and why the present is as it is
Such stories about the past, however, do not need to be true to be good history; they need only explain the evidence about the past and what we know about the present better than do rival accounts
An account of the 1857 War of Independence that is true is better as history than one that is not true but better explains the evidence.