Title: No, history is not “what happened in the past” | by Doc Ayomide | Evocations | Medium
Headings: No, history is not “what happened in the past”
No, history is not “what happened in the past”
What it really is, and why that matters
History is a funny thing.
So no, history isn’t just what happened in the past. History is the RECORD of what happened in the past.
And, in time, becomes history.
A history, it turns out, is a form of power wielded by whoever gets to tell it.
Footnote:

Content: And although images and sculpture last longer, they are easy to misinterpret. Writing, however, is itself. It might have shades of meaning and even innuendo, but for now, writing remains about the next best thing to a time machine. Yes, it can be forgotten, altered, crossed out, misread, mistranslated, even lost. But as long as the writing itself is preserved, even its misinterpretation can always be corrected. As an ancient Roman government official was recorded (in writing, of course) to have said, after he authorised the killing of the man who gave him his claim to fame…
What's written (at least generally) stays written.†
And, in time, becomes history. That’s why the proverb, made popular by Chinua Achebe, is so apt: "Until the lions have their own historians, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." Tough luck, cat. A history, it turns out, is a form of power wielded by whoever gets to tell it.