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Posted Dec 30, 2019, 6:05 PM UTC
This submission has been removed because it is soapboxing or moralizing: it has the effect of promoting an opinion on contemporary politics or social issues at the expense of historical integrity. There are certainly historical topics that relate to contemporary issues and it is possible for legitimate interpretations that differ from each other to come out of looking at the past through differing political lenses. However, we will remove questions that put a deliberate slant on their subject or solicit answers that align with a specific pre-existing view.
Fair. How would I reword the question to "neutralize" it in terms of political view ? Do I restrain it to the actual historical question ("How much did the Nazi-Soviet Treaty of Non Aggression contribute to WWII happening ?") or would
The European parliament recently adopted a resolution stating that "the Second World War [...] was caused by the notorious Nazi-Soviet Treaty of Non-Aggression of 23 August 1939". How true is that ?
be neutral enough to be accepted ? I do think the fact that it has been voted on is relevant to the discussion. On the French internet, a linguist youtuber often rants about politics voting on things that should be the domain of the actual science of linguistic, or how the misuse of bad linguistic fact serves as justification for certain laws. I'm sure there is an equivalent debate among historians, and it's what I'd hope for the discussion to touch on.
Which is why I'd prefer the second formulation, as it touches on this political aspect.
I understand the reason to ask this, but political bodies make decisions for political reasons, and present-day political decisions fall under our 20-year rule. The question as you rephrased it is fine; it asks about historians' views on a historical theory, and leaves the political conclusions to the reader. Instead of "How true is that?" you could ask "Does this reflect the consensus of historians?" or "Is this something historians agree on?"
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