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For the denial and distortion of well-established historical facts see Historical revisionism (negationism). For the critical reexamination of historical facts see Historical revisionism.

Within the academic field of history, historical revisionism is the critical reexamination of historical facts, with an eye towards rewriting histories with either newly discovered information or a reinterpretation of existing information. History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology The assumption is that history as it has been traditionally told may not be entirely accurate. [1]

Contents

Historical revisionism

Pulitzer Prize winning historian James McPherson, writing for the American Historical Association, described the importance of revisionism:

The 14,000 members of this Association, however, know that revision is the lifeblood of historical scholarship. The Pulitzer Prize, ˈpʊlɨtsɚ PULL-it-sər is an American award regarded as the highest national honor in Newspaper journalism, See also History An historian is an individual who studies and writes about History, and is regarded as an Authority on it For the Civil War General of a similar name see James B McPherson James M The American Historical Association ( AHA) is the oldest and largest society of Historians and Teachers of History in the United States History is a continuing dialogue between the present and the past. Interpretations of the past are subject to change in response to new evidence, new questions asked of the evidence, new perspectives gained by the passage of time. There is no single, eternal, and immutable "truth" about past events and their meaning. The unending quest of historians for understanding the past—that is, "revisionism"—is what makes history vital and meaningful. Without revisionism, we might be stuck with the images of Reconstruction after the American Civil War that were conveyed by D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation and Claude Bowers's The Tragic Era. Were the Gilded Age entrepreneurs "Captains of Industry" or "Robber Barons"? Without revisionist historians who have done research in new sources and asked new and nuanced questions, we would remain mired in one or another of these stereotypes. Supreme Court decisions often reflect a "revisionist" interpretation of history as well as of the Constitution. [2]

Those historians who work within the existing establishment and who have a body of existing work from which they claim authority, often have the most to gain by maintaining the status quo. This can be called an accepted paradigm, which in some circles or societies takes the form of a denunciative stance towards revisionism of any kind. The word paradigm ( Greek:παράδειγμα (paradigmacomposite from para- and the verb δείχνυμι "to show" as a whole -roughly- meaning "example" Historian David Williams describes the resistance to the advocates of a more inclusive United States history that would include the roles of women, African Americans, and the labor movement:

These and other scholarly voices called for a more comprehensive treatment of American history, stressing that the mass of Americans, not simply the power elites, made history. Yet it was mainly white males of the power elite who had the means to attend college, become professional historians, and shape a view of history that served their own class, race, and gender interests at the expense of those not so fortunate -- and quite literally to paper over aspects of history they found uncomfortable. “One is astonished in the study of history,” wrote Du Bois in 1935, “at the recurrence of the idea that evil must be forgotten, distorted, skimmed over. . . . The difficulty, of course, with this philosophy is that history loses its value as an incentive and an example; it paints perfect men and noble nations, but it does not tell the truth. [3]

After World War II “a new and more broadly based generation of scholars”, as the result of the GI Bill, the nationwide expansion of state universities and community colleges, and the feminist movement, civil rights movement, and American Indian Movement, expanded the scope of American history. [4]

If there were a universally accepted view of history which never changed, there would be no need to research it further. Many historians who write revisionist exposés are motivated by a genuine desire to educate and to correct history. Many great discoveries have come as a result of the research of men and women who have been curious enough to revisit certain historical events and explore them again in depth from a new perspective. Historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. , in contrasting the United States with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, wrote:

But others, especially in the United States . . . represent what American historians call “revisionism” -- that is a readiness to challenge official explanations. No one should be surprised by this phenomenon. Every war in American history has been followed in due course by skeptical reassessments of supposedly sacred assumptions. . . .

For revisionism is an essential part of the process by which history, through the posing of new problems and the investigation of new possibilities, enlarges its perspectives and enriches its insights. [5]

Revisionist historians contest the mainstream or traditional view of historical events, they raise views at odds with traditionalists, which must be freshly judged. Revisionist history is often practiced by those who are in the minority, such as feminist historians, ethnic minority historians, those working outside of mainstream academia in smaller and less known universities, or the youngest scholars, essentially historians who have the most to gain and the least to lose in challenging the status quo. In the friction between the mainstream of accepted beliefs and the new perspectives of historical revisionism, received historical ideas are either changed, solidified, or clarified. If over a period of time the revisionist ideas become the new establishment status quo a paradigm shift is said to have occurred. Paradigm shift, sometimes known as extraordinary science or revolutionary science, is the term first used by Thomas Kuhn in his influential Historian Forrest McDonald is often critical of the turn that revisionism has taken but he nevertheless admits that the turmoil of the 1960s in the United States changed the way history was written. He wrote:

The result, as far as the study of history was concerned, was an awakened interest in subjects that historians had previously slighted. Indian history, black history, women’s history, family history, and a host of specializations arose.

These expanded horizons enriched our understanding of the American past, but they also resulted in works of special pleading, trivialization, and downright falsification. [6]

Historians, like all people, are inexorably influenced by the zeitgeist (the spirit of the times). Zeitgeist ( pronounced) is a German language expression literally translated Zeit time; Geist spirit, meaning "the Historian C. Vann Woodward sees this as a positive influence. Speaking of the changes that occurred after the end of World War II, he wrote:

Thee events have come with a concentration and violence for which the term "revolution" is usually reserved. It is a revolution, or perhaps a set of revolutions for which we have not yet found a name. My thesis is that these developments will and should raise new questions about the past and affect our reading of large areas of history, and my belief is that future revisions may be extensive enough to justify calling the coming age of historiography an age of reinterpretation. The first illustration [the absence from United States’ history of external threats due to its geographic isolation] happens to come mainly from American history, but this should not obscure the broader scope of the revolution, which has no national limitations. [7]

Developments in other academic areas, and cultural and political fashions, all help to shape the currently accepted model and outlines of history (the accepted historiographical paradigm). For example philosopher Karl Popper echoed Woodward’s sentiments regarding revisionism when he noted that “each generation has its own troubles and problems, and therefore its own interests and its own point of view” and:

It follows that each generation has a right to look upon and re-interpret history in its own way. Sir Karl Raimund Popper ( July 28 1902  &ndash September 17 1994) was an Austrian and British Philosopher and a professor . . . After all, we study history because we are interested in it, and perhaps because we wish to learn something about our problems. But history can serve neither of these two purpose if, under the influence of an inapplicable idea of objectivity, we hesitate to present historical problems from our point of view. And we should not think that our point of view, if consciously and critically applied to the problem, will be inferior to that of a writer who naively believes . . . that he has reached a level of objectivity permitting him to present “the events of the past as they actually did happen. ”[8]

As time passes and these influences change so do most historians views on the explanation of historical events. The old consensus may no longer be considered by most historians to explain how and why certain events in the past occurred, and so the accepted model is revised to fit in with the current agreed-upon version of events. For example, historian John Hope Franklin in 1986 described four specific stages in the historiography of African American that were based on different consensus models. [9]

Influences

Some of the influences on historians, which may change over time are: greed-upon version of events. Some of the influences on historians, which may change over time are:

Examples

These are examples of historical revisionist ideas.

The "Dark Ages"

As non-Latin texts such as Welsh, Gaelic and the Sagas have been analysed and added to the canon of knowledge about the period and a lot more archaeological evidence has come to light, the period traditionally known as the Dark Ages has narrowed to the point where many historians no longer believe that such a term is useful. Welsh ( cy Cymraeg or cy y Gymraeg, kəmˈrɑːɨɡ and {{IPA|[ə ɡəmˈrɑːɨɡ]}}, is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic The Goidelic languages, (also sometimes called particularly in colloquial situations the Gaelic languages or collectively Gaelic) historically formed a Dialect The sagas (from Icelandic saga, plural sögur) are stories about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history about early Viking voyages This article is about the phrase "Dark Age(s" as a characterization of the Early Middle Ages in Western Europe Moreover, the term "Dark" implies less of a void of culture, but more of a lack of many sources in mainland Europe.

"Feudalism"

The concept of feudalism has undergone a number of revisions. Feudalism, a term first used in the early modern period (17th century in its most classic sense refers to a Medieval Europe Political system composed Revisionist thinking, lead by historian Elizabeth Brown, has rejected the term and concept completely. Feudalism, a term first used in the early modern period (17th century in its most classic sense refers to a Medieval Europe Political system composed

Agincourt

The Battle of Agincourt was for centuries believed to be an engagement in which the English army, though overwhelmingly outnumbered 4 to 1 by the French army, pulled off a stunning victory. The Battle of Agincourt was an English victory against a larger French army in the Hundred Years' War. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. However, recent research by Professor Anne Curry using the original enrollment records, has brought into question this interpretation and although her research is not finished[12], she has published her initial findings[13], that the French only outnumbered the English and Welsh 12,000 to 8,000. If true, the numbers may have been exaggerated for patriotic reasons by the English. [14]

Alchemy

Science historians are taking a new look at alchemy. Alchemy a part of the Occult Tradition is both a philosophy and a practice with an ultimately unknown aim involving the improvement of the alchemist as well as the making of Traditionally there was little room in the history of science for alchemy, which famously tried to convert lead into gold (lead oxide has a yellow colour), and it has been seen as closer to magic or mysticism than science. However there has been a revival of scholarship on the field and historians are finding reasons to give at least some alchemy a new interpretation. Alchemists, some historians are now saying, contributed to the emergence of modern chemistry as a science. [15]

New World discovery

In recounting the European colonization of the Americas, some history books of the past paid little attention to the indigenous peoples of the Americas, usually mentioning them only in passing and making no attempt to understand the events from their point of view. The start of the European colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492 although there was at least one earlier colonization effort For indigenous peoples in the United States other than Hawaii and Alaska see also Native Americans in the United States. This was reflected in the once widespread description of Christopher Columbus having "discovered" America. Christopher Columbus (1451 &ndash May 20 1506 was an Italian Navigator, colonizer The portrayal of these events has since been revised, and much present scholarship examines the impact of European exploration and colonization on indigenous peoples. Some of this historical writing is revisionist in the ideological sense of the word, such as in portrayals of Columbus as the perpetrator of a genocide, which are arguably polemical and presentist. Polemics (pəˈlɛmɪks/ /poʊ- is the practice of disputing or controverting religious, philosophical, or political matters Presentism is a mode of historical analysis in which present-day ideas and perspectives are anachronistically introduced into depictions or interpretations of the past But even moderate portrayals of Columbus now take into account modern revisionism, and rarely, for example, use the word discovery without quotation marks. (see Postcolonialism). Postcolonialism ( postcolonial theory, post-colonial theory) is an intellectual discourse that holds together a set of theories found among the texts and

Slavery and New World Africans

During historical periods of slavery, slaves have not been considered equal to their masters, something that has been reflected in the accepted histories of the time. In the study of the Reconstruction era of the American South, the revisionist interpretation of events has completely replaced the Dunning School interpretation. The Southern United States &mdashcommonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South &mdashconstitutes a large distinctive The Dunning School refers to a group of historians who shared a historiographical School of thought regarding the Reconstruction period of American Additionally, a more Afrocentrist paradigm increasingly has been utilized in the study of slave societies, and in studying the values, beliefs and traditions of Blacks in the New World, emphasizing the continuity of culture between them and Africans. Afrocentrism or Afrocentricity is a World view that emphasizes the importance of African people in culture philosophy and history The term black people usually refers to a racial group of Humans with dark Skin color, but the term has also been used to categorise a number of diverse The New World is one of the names used for the non-Eurasian/non-African parts of the Earth specifically the Americas and Australia.

French attacking formations in the Napoleonic wars

The military historian James R. Arnold argues that:

The writings of Sir Charles Oman and Sir John Fortescue dominated subsequent English-language Napoleonic history. Sir Charles William Chadwick Oman ( January 12 1860 &ndash June 23 1946) was a British military historian of the early The Hon Sir John William Fortescue (1859 &ndash 1938 was a British statesman and historian Their views [that the French infantry used heavy columns to attack lines of infantry] became very much the received wisdom. A military column is a formation of that can be applied to individual soldiers marching together in one or more files in which the file is significantly longer than . . . By 1998 a new paradigm seemed to have set in with the publication of two books devoted to Napoleonic battle tactics. Both claimed that the French fought in line at Maida and both fully explored French tactical variety. The Battle of Maida ( 4 July, 1806) was British victory against the First French Empire outside the town of San Pietro di Maida The 2002 publication of The Battle of Maida 1806: Fifteen Minutes of Glory, appeared to have brought the issue of column versus line to a satisfactory conclusion: "The contemporary sources are. . . the best evidence and their conclusion is clear: General Compère's brigade formed into line to attack Kempt's Light Battalion. " The decisive action at Maida took place in less than fifteen minutes. It had taken 72 years to rectify a great historian's error about what transpired during those minutes. [16][17]

Military leadership during the First World War

The military leadership of the British Army during the First World War was frequently condemned as poor by historians and politicians for decades after the war ended. The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Common charges were that the generals commanding the army were blind to the realities of trench warfare, ignorant of the conditions of their men and were unable to learn from their mistakes, thus causing enormous numbers of casualties ('lions led by donkeys'). Trench warfare is a form of warfare where both combatants have fortified positions and fighting lines are static "Lions led by donkeys" is a phrase popularly used to describe the British Infantry of the First World War and to condemn the Generals [18] However, during the 1960s historians such as John Terraine began to challenge this interpretation. John Alfred Terraine ( January 15, 1921 &ndash December 28, 2003) though not an academic historian was a leading British Military historian In recent years as new documents have come forth and the distance of time has allowed for more objective analysis, historians such as Gary D. Sheffield and Richard Holmes observe that the military leadership of the British Army on the Western Front had to cope with many problems that they could not control such as a lack of adequate military communications. Brigadier Edward Richard Holmes CBE TD JP (born March 29 1946) known as Richard Holmes, is a British soldier See Western Front (disambiguation for other meanings Western Front was a term used during the First and Second World Communication is the process of conveying information from a sender to a receiver with the use of a medium in which the communicated information is understood the same way Furthermore, military leadership improved throughout the war culminating in the Hundred Days Offensive advance to victory in 1918. The Hundred Days Offensive was the final period of World War I, where the Allies launched a series of offensives against the Central Powers on the Some historians, even revisionists, still criticise the British High Command severely, but they are less inclined to portray the war in a simplistic manner with brave troops being led by foolish officers.

There has been a similar movement regarding the French Army during the war with contributions by historians such as Anthony Clayton. The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre (Land Army is the land-based component of the French Armed Forces and its largest Revisionists are far more likely to view commanders such as French General Ferdinand Foch, British General Douglas Haig and other figures, such as American General Pershing, in a sympathetic light. Ferdinand Foch OM GCB (2 October 1851 – 20 March 1929 was a French soldier military theorist and writer credited with possessing "the most original Field Marshal Douglas Haig 1st Earl Haig, KT, GCB, OM, GCVO,

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "The two leading critical exposés of Holocaust denial in the United States were written by historians Deborah Lipstadt (1993) and Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman (2000). Pseudohistory is a term applied to texts which purport to be historical in nature but which depart from standard historiographical conventions in a way which undermines Salvador Borrego is a revisionist Mexican Journalist who has written several books which have been described by several prominent historians as revisionist history Deborah Esther Lipstadt (born March 18 1947 New York City) is an American Historian and author of the book Denying the Holocaust. Michael Brand Shermer (born September 8, 1954 in Glendale California) is an American science writer historian of science founder of The Skeptics These scholars make a distinction between historical revisionism and denial. Revisionism, in their view, entails a refinement of existing knowledge about an historical event, not a denial of the event itself, that comes through the examination of new empirical evidence or a reexamination or reinterpretation of existing evidence. Legitimate historical revisionism acknowledges a 'certain body of irrefutable evidence' or a 'convergence of evidence' that suggest that an event - like the black plague, American slavery, or the Holocaust - did in fact occur (Lipstadt 1993:21; Shermer & Grobman 200:34). Denial, on the other hand, rejects the entire foundation of historical evidence. . . " Ronald J. Berger. Fathoming the Holocaust: A Social Problems Approach, Aldine Transaction, 2002, ISBN 0202306704, p. 154.
  2. ^ Revisionist Historians
  3. ^ Williams, David. A People’s History of the Civil War: Struggles for the Meaning of Freedom. (2005) pp. 10-11
  4. ^ Williams p. 11
  5. ^ Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr. The Cycles of American History. (1986) p. 165
  6. ^ McDonald, Forest. Recovering the Past: A Historian’s Memoir. (2004) p. 114
  7. ^ Woodward, C. Vann. The Future of the Past. (1989). p. 76
  8. ^ Novick, Peter. That Noble Dream: The Objectivity Question and the American Historical profession. (1988) p. 395
  9. ^ African-American History: Origins, Development, and Current State of the Field | Joe W. Trotter | OAH Magazine of History
  10. ^ In 1972, before the release of official documents about ULTRA, Herman Goldstine wrote in The Computer from Pascal to von Neuman page 321 that: "Britain had such vitality that it could immediately after the war embark on so many well-conceived and well-executed projects in the computer field". Year 1972 ( MCMLXXII) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Herman Heine Goldstine ( September 13, 1913 &ndash June 16, 2004) Mathematician, Computer scientist and Scientific In 1976 after the archive were opened Brian Randell wrote in The COLOSSUS on page 87 that: "the COLOSSUS project was an important source of this vitality, one that has been largely unappreciated, as has the significance of its places in the chronology of the invention of the digital computer". Brian Randell is a British Computer scientist, specializing in research in Software Fault tolerance and Dependability.
  11. ^ Obituary of Andrew Sherratt in The Independent 6 March 2006
  12. ^ Page 288. The Independent is a British compact Newspaper published by Tony O'Reilly 's Independent News & Media. Events 1079 - Omar Khayyám completes the Iranian calendar. 1454 - Thirteen Years' War: Delegates of Matthew Strickland The Great Warbow. Pub Sutton, 2005, ISBN 0-7509-3167-1
  13. ^ Anne Curry. Agincourt: A New History, Pub Tempus, 2005, ISBN 0-7524-2828-4
  14. ^ Richard Brooks Henry V’s payroll cuts Agincourt myth down to size May 29, 2005
  15. ^ John Noble Wilford, "Transforming the Alchemists", New York Times, August 1, 2006
  16. ^ Arnold, James R. Events 363 - Roman Emperor Julian defeats the Sassanid army in the Battle of Ctesiphon, under the walls of the "A Reappraisal of Column Versus Line in the Peninsular War Oman and Historiography", The Napoleon Series, August 2004.
  17. ^ James R. Arnold, "A Reappraisal of Column Versus Line in the Napoleonic Wars" Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research LX no. 244 (Winter 1982): pp. 196-208.
  18. ^ Lions Led By Donkeys
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