Rebecca West was not only a noted novelist and the author of the great travelogue, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (my favorite, of all books), which explained the conditions that recently led up to Kosovo.

For her writings on the postWorld War II trials of spies, collaborators, and Nazi leaders, West was called, by her peers, "the best reporter of our time".

A few years ago, Bill Moyers interviewed Rebecca West on PBS. He asked her why, in her busy life, she took time off to cover The Nuremberg Trials. West replied that she felt she had to do it to get out "the truth" about this subject. Then she remarked, "Historians are such liars, you know."

Some time later, the famous writer of spy novels (and former "intelligence agent"), John Le Carré, was being interviewed by Robert MacNeil, still part of the PBS MacNeil-Lehrer Report. When the subject of history was raised, John Le Carré said, "History is the lie upon which historians find consensus."

I know that, in my own field (mathematics and physics), historians either lie ("sin of commision") or neglect ("sin of omission") WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

• Historians (and text-book writers) do not tell you that one of the principal charges of The Inquisition against Galileo (x-y) was that he was a "Pythagorean" (in promoting a law of falling bodies) by agreeing with Pythagoras that arithmetic could describe motion.

• Historians do not tell you that, prior to 1201 (see next irem), any person possessing a manuscript containing Hindu-Arabic decimal numeration could be charged with heresy by Church authorities or as a spy by secular authorities.
• For example, how would you like to balance your check-book or fill out your tax-form BY ROMAN NUMERAL CALCULATION? Europeans had to do similar chores until the 13th century introduction of THE HINDU-ARABIC DECIMAL SYSTEM, which we now use. We know how difficult ROMAN NUMERAL CALCULATION was because of a letter written when it was still used. A merchant wrote an academic to ask how he could obtain the best mathematical training for his son, preparing his for his father's business. The academic replied that, to ADD and SUBTRACT in ROMAN NUMERALS the best pre-university schools would do. To MULTIPLY in ROMAN NUMERALS, the best local UNIVERISTY would do. But, to DIVIDE in ROMAN NUMERALS, only one school in the world provide good education in this, the great University of Bologna. Hindu-Arabic numeration changed all of that. There followed the great Age of Trade (as far away as China) and the great Age of Navigation, all around the world and the discovery of "The New World" (America). These would have been impossible using only Roman Numeral accounting and calculation. Historians mention these periods, but make no mention of how "math" made them possible.

• Historians speak of "The Industrial Revolution" (circa 1776). Correctly, this was "The Themodynamic Industrial Revolution" set off by improved steam engines. This ignores "The Mechanical Industrial Revolution" of the 12th and 13th century, when thousands of windmills and water mills spread across Europe and Britain. This also ignores "The Electrical Industrial Revolution", which began with the Edison's Pearl Street Station lighting New York City streets in 1882. And ignores "The Electronic Industrial Revolution", presaged in 1902 when, using antenna of his own design, (Italian) Gugliermo Marconi (1874-1937) transmitted radio signals across the Atlantic Ocean, from Cornwall in Britain, to Newfoundland in Canada. This Revolution was confirmed in 1920 with broadcasting by the first commercial radio station, KDKA in Pittsburgh, PA. Historians also ignore "The Nano-Photonic Industrial Revolution" now beginning.

• Historians don't tell you that the 15th Amendment to The Constitution, granting "Equal rights to white and colored citizens", WAS USED TO MAKE LEGAL THE INSTITUTION OF THE CORPORATION! Until the CORPORATION was interpreted as "a person" covered by this Amendment, efforts to legalize this commercial structure had been resisted. The Supreme Court accepted this interpretation.
• And historians don't tell you about many of the possible coverups I've cited herein.

				See! See! The historian hyperbolic!
				Mad as mythorian with colic,
				He hath disavowed math
				And all that math hath
				Endowed for our great body politic.
				He shall be forgiven,
				His sic sins quite shriven:
				Getting high on a high colonic.(jh)