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In common parlance we often equate history with memory and assume that both provide avenues to accurate recreations of the past. The stories we tell about our own lives and about our collective existence in social groupings seem to be based on solid facts and irreducible truths. Somehow, we think, if we can discover enough facts we can construct an accurate depiction of the past. As recent scholarship in the field of social memory reveals, this is a naive and superficial way of thinking about memory. Memory, history, and evidence interact and conflict in complex and fascinating ways.
— Archives Power: Memory, Accountability, and Social Justice by Randall C. Jimerson
