So... what exactly IS history?

It's an important  question, perhaps even more so than "Why study history?" Like so many thing, if  we do not understand WHAT we are studying, how can we have any  realistic idea of HOW to interpret it?

Let's take a look  at two recent events, a Supreme Court case, the firing of a high school football  coach in Bremerton, WA.  And the biggest "news story" in the country right  now, the Martha's Vineyard immigrants.

Each of these  stories have their slants depending on which side you choose to follow. If  you're just an average person, how do you have any idea what is true, what is  meaningful or what really matters?

If we can  understand WHAT is history, then we can ask two further questions,  who chooses what gets recorded as history? And Can we ever get the truth, the  whole truth and nothing buy the truth?