Title: historiography - Is history always written by the victors? - History Stack Exchange
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Is history always written by the victors?
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Content: Even modern attempts at identifying the historical truth of the era, such as the 2011 "1821" documentary, are met with controversy in Greece. A more recent example would be the American Civil War and the Lost Cause movement, a term borrowed from Edward Pollard's 1866 book The Lost Cause: A New Southern History of the War of the Confederates : Comprising a Full and Authentic Account of the Rise and Progress of the Late Southern Confederacy--the Campaigns, Battles, Incidents, and Adventures of the Most Gigantic Struggle of the World's History. Lastly, a (perhaps controversial) example of history written by the losers is the account of the Vietnam War. Although whether the US lost the war is debatable they certainly didn't win it, still the overwhelming majority of historical documentation for the war comes from the US. Further reading: Michel Foucault's Society Must Be Defended (Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975-76)
Thomas Carlyle's On Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic in History,
Social history and People's history articles on Wikipedia,
Philosophy of history article on Wikipedia,
Truth by consensus article on Wikipedia,
Historical revisionism article on Wikipedia,
History written by the losers article on The Guardian. Share
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edited Nov 15 '12 at 0:32
answered Nov 15 '12 at 0:17
yannis
yannis
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All the bad press given to Vikings (and the like) by angry monks suggests not always. Depends if the victors build a tradition of literacy and of documenting history or whether they just go build more longboats and get drunk.