Title: “History Is Written by the Winners” – Piece of Mindful
Headings: “History Is Written by the Winners”
“History Is Written by the Winners”
Content: We usually use it to refer to a situation where there is a clear conflict or war and one side wins. They get to write the history books, to define which side in the conflict was justified, who attacked who, why, and otherwise re-interpret or invent the historical facts to make themselves look good. I poked around a bit trying to find out who said it ‘originally,’ and it seems to have been attributed to Churchill, Hitler, Napoleon, Machiavelli, and Orwell. But they all used it in the same way. Orwell is a good example. Here in this 1944 entry in a column he wrote for The Tribune, he writes: Out of the millions of instances which must be available, I will choose one which happens to be veriﬁable. During part of 1941 and 1942, when the Luftwaffe was busy in Russia, the German radio regaled its home audiences with stories of devastating air raids on London. Now, we are aware that those raids did not happen. But what use would our knowledge be if the Germans conquered Britain?