But is it history?

How do we know a past beyond the reach of our immediate experience? Since the nineteenth century, professional historians have been trusted to be able to close the gap between the present and the past, and to represent the past as it really was. Experiments in history can play an important role in undermining that trust, and in encouraging those reading or watching or listening to history to shed their fear of flying. At the same time, experimental histories can sow doubt as to whether the past perhaps amounts to more than something over and done with, the history of which can be validated by reference to indisputable outcomes.