Interesting Items About History

Revisionist history is a fact.  The item at the link below provides a degree of insight into the subject and should cause us to be aware that all we read is not necessarily complete or accurate.  It is provided for your perusal.  You also might find the Inconvenient History website quite interesting.  Here is a short quote that summarizes what they are about.  "Our desire is to return to the roots of revisionism without any political agenda or desire to whitewash totalitarian regimes. We are free-thinkers who seek to support the concept of intellectual freedom as a means to peace and understanding among nations, groups and individuals of every description. We are not interested in conspiracy theories; we are interested in revealing real history and supporting the freedom of historians to explore even the most sacred of historical dogmas without fear of reprisal."   http://inconvenienthistory.com/archive/2013/volume_5/number_2/historical_revisionism_and_popular_opinion.php

Another more lengthy article entitled "How Revisionist History Works" is provided here.  http://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/revisionist-history1.htm

Here is a most interesting example.  It examines the mythical aura surrounding WW II, the war dubbed as the Good War.  The article raises legitimate questions regarding this notion and presents a view not necessarily represented in the popular histories most of us read.  Quote: "What were the American goals in World War II, and how successful was the US in achieving them?  In 1941 President Franklin Roosevelt, together with British prime minister Winston Churchill, issued a formal declaration of Allied war aims, the much-publicized "Atlantic Charter." In it, the United States and Britain declared that they sought "no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned," that they would "respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of governments under which they will live," and that they would strive "to see sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them." It soon became apparent, though, that this solemn pledge of freedom and self-government for "all peoples" was little more than empty propaganda. / 10 This is hardly surprising, given that America's two most important military allies in the war were Great Britain and the Soviet Union – that is, the world's foremost imperialist power, and the world's cruelest tyranny."  Here are two more quotes: "At the outbreak of war in 1939, Britain ruled over the largest colonial empire in history, holding more millions of people against their will than any regime before or since. This vast empire included what is now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and South Africa."  And, "America's other great wartime ally, the Soviet Union, was, by any objective measure, the most tyrannical or oppressive regime of its time, and a vastly more cruel despotism than Hitler's Germany.  As historians acknowledge, the victims of Soviet dictator Stalin greatly outnumber those who perished as a result of Hitler's policies. Robert Conquest, a prominent scholar of twentieth century Russian history, estimates the number of those who lost their lives as a consequence of Stalin's policies as "no fewer than 20 million." / 11"   http://www.ihr.org/news/weber_ww2_may08.html   This item calls to mind Winston Churchill's famous remark that "It is the victors of war who write its history."  

This is a contemporary example of attempts to rewrite or at least influence what is recorded as history.  Quote: Regarding Obama's refusal to release his college transcripts this author guesses "...it is less Obama’s grades, and more his choice of courses that is problematic. Evidence suggests that even good students leave college with less knowledge of history than on entrance. Perhaps this afflicted Obama. His understanding of both Islam and historical determinism suggests that a lot of his coursework was less than rigorous. With regard to the former, it’s the type of stuff you get in courses taught by advocates, and authors of popular histories, rather than scholars. The latter, a watered-down versions of Marx, Hegel, and the like, by professors who prefer to agitate, rather than actually teach doctrinaire historical determinism, which is really the only kind that makes any sense conceptually."    http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/12/barack_obama_student_of_history.html

George Burns