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Re:
"Vietnamese histories of the Great Liberation War exist but are written in Vietnamese! In fact one was written by DRVN General (ret) Ngo Diem Giap"
Time for a translation. And that of course is another subjective variable in writing and understanding the history of cultures. Some writing can be subtle in its meaning. Translators need to be careful of that.
Vietnamese histories of the Great Liberation War exist but are written in Vietnamese! In fact one was written by DRVN General (ret) Ngo Diem Giap.
I'm aware of that. The idea before us was that history was only written by the winners, and the wide availability of Vietnam books by the losers of that war negates that statement. That there are also histories of the war written by the winners, does not alter this.
Re:
"Vietnamese histories of the Great Liberation War exist but are written in Vietnamese! In fact one was written by DRVN General (ret) Ngo Diem Giap"
Time for a translation. And that of course is another subjective variable in writing and understanding the history of cultures. Some writing can be subtle in its meaning. Translators need to be careful of that.
Agreed, especially when dealing with Asian languages where words can by represented whole symbols and context can be everything.
I think your question is totally and positively a great question. (But winners writing history ... like wars lost and the winner revamps it?)
Texas (years ago) wanted to rewrite history books. I don't know where it stands. History is written for the masses to not accurately reflect what happened but to lead people to believe something other than what really happened. That's why myths poke their heads out of the darkness. It makes things easier to swallow and for many, to understand.
I personally believe it would not only take strong unbiased characters to objectively write history but someone who has nothing to prove but the facts and I haven't seen that happen yet and I'm 60+. Hmmm ... winners (or more powerful and controlling factions) may, indeed, be writing bogus history. Watch:
Who discovered America? Those who became natives who walked from who knows where through Alaska into the Americas.
Who discovered America? Christopher Columbus in 1492! Wrong ... it was here when he arrived to a land already occupied by the natives.
This thread is a winner and thought-provoking. Thanks!
I think your question is totally and positively a great question. (But winners writing history ... like wars lost and the winner revamps it?)
Texas (years ago) wanted to rewrite history books. I don't know where it stands. History is written for the masses to not accurately reflect what happened but to lead people to believe something other than what really happened. That's why myths poke their heads out of the darkness. It makes things easier to swallow and for many, to understand.
I personally believe it would not only take strong unbiased characters to objectively write history but someone who has nothing to prove but the facts and I haven't seen that happen yet and I'm 60+. Hmmm ... winners (or more powerful and controlling factions) may, indeed, be writing bogus history. Watch:
Who discovered America? Those who became natives who walked from who knows where through Alaska into the Americas.
Who discovered America? Christopher Columbus in 1492! Wrong ... it was here when he arrived to a land already occupied by the natives.
This thread is a winner and thought-provoking. Thanks!
Cristobal Colon (C. Columbus) did not discover America in eiher his mind or his own words. He was so convinced his was in some fringe islands just to the East of Asia! He believed he was in the spice islands known as the Indies and that is what he named them . He continued to believe this even after he made his last voyage which actually took him along part o the NE cost of South America and found the lrge Orinoo River which should have clued he in that he wasn't sailing around a bunch of islands. Othes who followed in his foot steps like Englishman John Cabot who discovered New Found land and New England and the Portugese who strayed off the African roue to Asia tey pioneered and discovered Brasil made the conceptual leap that a New World had been found. This is why the Americas are noit named Columbia or Colon or some permutation.
^
I didn't go to school in Scandanavia but I'd bet their texts show one of their forebears 'discovering' North America 500 years before Cristobal ....;-)...and their culturally focused investigations and excavations have argued that the site linked with that is L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland about 1000 A.D. during the Viking Age.
There are also writings indicative of voyages to 'Vinland' by the Norse in their literature. Those writings also use the word 'Skaerlings' when noting who the Norse met up with. The interpretation made by scholars was that they were 'Indians' native to the areas where the Norse settled when they came frim Greenland to North America.
Maybe before the printing press, and the proverb is even less so with the advent of the internet (and then it becomes a case of "history is written by Joe Blow who doesn't have any idea what he is talking about").
Case in point:
How many books are written about Napoleon? If memory recalls, he lost and ended up dying in some godforsaken Island in the Atlantic Ocean. Thousands of books decree his genius.
How many books are written dedicated to Russia's amazing achievement and ultimate victories in the Age of Napoleon? Very few, I have one of them "Russia Against Napoleon".
But yeah, a historian is never totally objective, and a reader must be aware of the background and intent of a writer. Fortunetly that's where the printing press comes in - you have one subjective source on a topic and you simply find another source from the amazon bookstore or your local library.
Getting back to the topic of Napoleon, you just know if it's a book by a British author that the dreaded disease that I call BSS ("British Superiority Syndrome") will come in. This is the tendency for British historians to proclaim anything British from the 16th to 19th century, be it tactics, strategies, technology, leadership, etc., to be the best that the world has seen. BSS...It's a British thing....
Napoleon was defeated in Haiti as well although there are histories that describe, I agree with you, most focus on his many victories.
Quote:
The Haitian Revolution was influential in slave rebellions in the United States and British colonies. According to Haitian writer Michael J. Dash, the U.S. government feared that a successful slave revolt in Haiti would inspire a similar revolt in the United States.
Cristobal Colon (C. Columbus) did not discover America in eiher his mind or his own words. He was so convinced his was in some fringe islands just to the East of Asia! He believed he was in the spice islands known as the Indies and that is what he named them . He continued to believe this even after he made his last voyage which actually took him along part o the NE cost of South America and found the lrge Orinoo River which should have clued he in that he wasn't sailing around a bunch of islands. Othes who followed in his foot steps like Englishman John Cabot who discovered New Found land and New England and the Portugese who strayed off the African roue to Asia tey pioneered and discovered Brasil made the conceptual leap that a New World had been found. This is why the Americas are noit named Columbia or Colon or some permutation.
I appreciate the correction. Thanks! Why does the bogus song continue and I still hear it asked, "When did Columbus discover America?" It just doesn't go away. Has it been changed in textbooks?
There is a difference between studied and informed historical perspectives and the propaganda of unprincipled ideological hacks. Those who claim there is not only indict themselves.
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