History Has Changed!

How can history changed one might ask?  I thought history was a record of what happened at some place in some time of the past.  Well, it can change if people don’t like it.  If something is not to your liking, just change it to fit your preference.  All you have to do is get in control of the new history books and simply rewrite it to say whatever you want it to say.  But isn’t that dishonest?  What does honesty have to with anything?  Just do your thing and enjoy the power. 

Hey, I am being a little (or a lot) sarcastic at this point.  But if the history we study is not the truth, but just the way someone wishes it to be, then it isn’t history.  It’s someone’s bias.  Who wants that?

I’m convinced that that the history I learned (not very well for I was a real poor student) is different from the history students today are learning.  Common sense tells us that if two different stories are told about the same event, they can’t both be right.  They may both be wrong, but both can’t be right.  So how does some historical events get changed over the years?  Maybe the historian is not committed to the truth, but rather to a personal bias.  Maybe some historian are telling us what they wish it had been instead of how it was.

Let me give you two real simple historical lessons.  Why was Abraham Lincoln called ‘Honest Abe’?  Does anyone remember the story of the long walk to return 2 cents?  I think that story is dropped from the modern day teaching.  Today’s history tells the flaws of a politician who was depressed and got what he deserved from a hero named John W. Booth.

Does anyone remember why George Washington was known for ‘not telling a lie?’  He was committed to truth, does a cherry tree come to mind?  Probably not for a modern day student.  Today George is known to many as an evil slave owner, capitalist and money grabber. 

The bottom line is this… history doesn’t lie.  It is what it is.  History can’t lie, but historians can.