I have to also add, looking back over my comments, that school has been leaving me in a weirdly combative mood lately. *wry* Oops.

Well, we can't, basically. It's a problem which is fairly universal to all study of the past; in the end you have more and less blatant bias shaping the things we take away from any given historical person or event. One can basically just acknowledge whatever bias one's aware of, try to be conscious of it, and keep going, as far as I can tell.