Philosophers of History I am going to stop you right here

For a lack of a better title, here is something that popped up when reading about Historical Imagination and the meaning of History.

If I am going to say that History does not equate to The Past, I believe at least half of the people I talk to are going to agree with me. If I say History IS The Past however, I think only a small handful of historians who think the study can bring about knowledge of how the past really was will agree this time. I don't care if I sound sympathetic to the minority but ponder on the next bit a little:

1. Is there any other way to investigate how the past really was other than studying the insufficient, incomplete, sometimes even contradictory sources that we are left with? 

Ans to 1: Well Uncle Allen we can build a time machine, I'm sure they will be able to do it in the far future!

Rebuttal: Same reply, if there were time machines in the future why haven't we been visited. But this is not the point of the debate, now listen to 2.

2. If we are able to build a time machine, and travel back to the past, will we be able to interpret the past while being in the past?

My point here is, I do not believe that by physically travelling into the past, it can allow our 21st century pre-conceived notions and historical imagination to successfully crossover into thinking like another person in another time. By reaching the 14th Century you will still be a 21st Century person living in the 14th Century and the way you observe and perceive this past-present will be dictated by the world view and methodology obtained in the 21st Century. You cannot eliminate this "chronocentrism" regardless, but by using the historical imagination you try as hard as you may to close the gap. Perhaps by physically entering the past one can, with greater access to sources, and first hand experience of historical events, make better sense and construct more coherent (and to push it a little, more accurate) narratives of the past; but as long as one retains the memories of one's life and time before they entered the past-present, one can never transcend from a writer of the past to an actor of the past-present.

If the last part sounded like I am rubbing shit into the face of Anthropology I apologise it wasn't intentional.