Abstract
Historians should use four basic assumptions to examine the past and their thinking about history. First, the ideas of postmodernism and deconstructionism are no longer relevant for study in the humanities and the social sciences. Second, truth exists and scholars have the ability to attain it through a process of trial and error. Third, objective reality exists. Fourth, the study of history is justified ontologically. Despite attacks on historical inquiry by postmodernists and other critics, such as Henri Lefebvre and Francis Fukuyama, historical writing has overcome many death announcements and shows every promise of thriving in the future.