The study of history is a peculiar paradox. One would think that the past is known; after all, we were there. This is technically true, but reality is not so straightforward. Even if humanity recorded every event and every thought, there would inevitably be gaps. The simple distance that grows with every passing day means that records are lost, context is forgotten, cultural norms drift, and interpreting what records do survive becomes more treacherous. Our efforts to interpret the past inevitably become part of the past which inexorably drifts into the mist. In “Inventing the Renaissance”, Ada Palmer presents a history of the Renaissance while unpacking some of the baggage around the Renaissance and histories thereof.