Is the great Orson Welles possibly not all that great? Is there something coarse and generic about one of our most beloved war memorials? Which of our Founding Fathers deserves better of us? Which of our painters? For the eighth year in a row historians and journalists assess the ever-shifting reputations of people and events, and once again affirm that history is never history—that it is the most volatile, passionate, and living of pursuits.