History is written by the winners so the saying goes.

I waited for months to get my hands on Crescent and Star: Turkey between two worlds. I read about it months ago and decided it would be interesting to read a foreigner's perspective of my homeland. I downloaded the first chapter from the New York Times and found him to be interesting enough to be worth my time.

As I read book, I often find myself struggling to remember the versions of history I was taught. For as long as I can remember, I've hated history with a passion. Part of that might be attributed to having grown up in a country with history that practically dates back to the beginning of time. Another part could have something to do with my awful teachers. History translates to hours of memorization when you go to my school and maybe that's got something to do with my despising it, too. I've never been good at memorizing anything.

Anyhow, let's get back to my topic. Reading about the history of the Ottoman Empire, I noticed a few discrepancies. Some were minor, like the story of how someone got their nickname. Others were more drastic and made me ponder how history is taught. Every nation has its own version of what happened, who was right and why things turned out how they did. One nation's hero is another nation's traitor.

In my training class at work, I met a girl from Iran who became one of my close friends. I remember chatting with her one day, in the subway on the way home. I can't recall how the conversation came up but I was telling her how glad I was that Ataturk did all that he did for Turkey and how if it weren't for him, I don't know where we would live. She looked at me in the eye and told me that they considered him a traitor. I was flabbergasted. Honestly. If you ever visit Turkey and see how adored and cherished this man is, the idea of anyone, anywhere not thinking he's amazing hadn't occurred to me. I mean, there are special history classes solely based on him and his movements for goodness' sake.

Reading this book makes me wonder what it takes to get an honest account of history. What actually happened? I am not so concerned with who's right and who's wrong. I do understand that's opinion based. But I am interested in a straightforward order of events. Just to be informed. Just to learn without bias.

Do I need to read books from all the countries involved and string the pieces together? Is it even possible to get an accurate understanding of what happened? Is history always deceiving? Is the only way to know what happened to have been there?

People say that those to don't study history are doomed to repeat it. Yet they never say anything about how difficult it is to simply get the facts.

Previously? Anticipation.