[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

As a history graduate, I have to wonder whether it is a great idea to manipulate history to suit an agenda, whatever that agenda might be. It should be about analyzing the facts without preconceptions or spin....

That's not realistic. It's what do the facts say that is difficult. e.g. was Julius Caesar a great general and statesman or a cruel tyrant? Or both?

Historians have come down on both sides. And a few saying "somewhere in between".

[Vanders9]

I dont know whether its a great idea to manipulate history to suit an agenda, but its certainly a very common one.

Everyone "manipulates" the past to one extent or another, either to justify or to condemn someone or something in he present. In fact, I would go so far as to say that any given "take" on the past tells you as much about the historian as it does the history.