"He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future."

History is precious, as it contains lessons we will need to learn; since it tells us where we've been, it can also help show where we're going. And for those who believe in eternal score-settling, history is the tally sheet recording the score.

This seems to be a particularly perilous time for history. One (smaller, in my estimate) risk which has gotten much attention lately is the Internet, which allows myths to propagate quickly. "Anybody can put up a web page!" claim the critics. Of course. But likewise, anyone can use a search engine, and find another web page which refutes it.

The implication is that the Internet is unreliable, while books, academics, television reporting, newspapers, and news magazines are trustworthy. Yet to the contrary, it seems (as the "Rathergate" episode demonstrates) that these other sources have had more than their share of fraud -- and have been intermittantly perpetrating such frauds for a long, long time -- and that the Internet, and blogs in particular, have finally allowed a healthy counterbalance.

Further, its also worth nothing all five of the frauds I hope to mention here were committed by professionals and academics -- and the Internet played no major role in perpetrating them.

There is a common theme among all five frauds I detail below: The desire to use history as a means of fordwarding a political purpose, or to gain power by falsifying important events in history.

1. Ward Churchill and the Mandan Smallpox-Blanket Genocide