Even if it were possible for every historian to personally hear all the tapes relevant to his or her project, not everyone would be able to make sense of them. Only experts well-versed in the appropriate history can decode the countless references on the tapes to the people, events, and details. This also explains why errors in the transcript volumes may go unnoticed. Not many book reviewers are likely to haul themselves to a presidential library to engage in time-consuming spot checks. One reason no one questioned The Kennedy Tapes' accuracy until Stern did was that no one was in a position to do so. How many historians had both the deep knowledge of the context and the intimate familiarity with the Cuba recordings? Collections like Kutler's or the Miller Center volumes are essential; competing versions, like Stern's forthcoming missile crisis book, are even more so.