Historians must report facts regardless of personal desire.

Evidence

[S]omebody in each era must make clear the facts with utter disregard to his own wish and desire and belief. What we have got to know, so far as possible, are the things that actually happened in the world… . [T]he historian has no right, posing as scientist, to conceal or distort facts; and until we distinguish between these two functions of the chronicler of human action, we are going to render it easy for a muddled world out of sheer ignorance to make the same mistake ten times over. (p. 722) He had written these words with American historiography in mind. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1073

Categorization

• DEFINE: Du Bois’s own methodological creed, distinguishing the chronicler’s duty from the scientist’s pose.
• APHORISMS: A timeless statement of the historian’s duty to factual accuracy over wish — reads as genuine life-advice for any writer of record.