It is characteristic of humans to
comprehend events as stories, and even
as stories within larger stories.
When we understand situations in this
way, as having beginnings, middles, and
ends, we are far likelier to be persuaded
than when only pieces of information
are clear and available. As a historian,
my primary task is to resolve disparate
and even fragmentary evidence so as to be
able to present a lucid, defensible, and
even engaging narrative. The process of
narrative development applies to any
subject matter.