To what extent do historians own history Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

To what extent do historians own history - Essay ExampleWhile one may often mistakenly assume that history is actually in black and white, it is quite crap that when historians write down history, they do mainly according to the various social practices and policies of the country at the age (2002).It is often up to the historians to help in determining the extent to which history will ultimately be rewritten (Foner, 2002). Oscar Wilde is credited as having once said that the one duty of the persons that happen to own history is to hold in that they rewrite it. Arguably, it has been claimed that modern historians have undertaken to fulfilling this aspect of their work a little too well. This is exemplified by the particular that in the modern day society, there is a large number of people who as contrasted to celebrating the rather exciting anniversary of capital of Ohio discovery of the American continent, instead choose to mourn Columbus Day by choosing to remember it as a ge nocidal invasion of the continent by large amount of White Europeans (Marsh 61). In contrast to the branding of murderer by some modern day historians, the general perception of Columbus was quite different a hundred years ago when during the 400th solemnization of Columbus arrival in the New World, President Benjamin Harrison paid tribute to Columbus and referred to his as the pioneer of both enlightenment and progression. In a similar vein, the American Indians who had previously been portrayed as existence an extremely cruel and savage race, have now undergone a historical reprisal that has seen them often being pictured as being a being an extremely peaceful people that strive to resilient in constantly harmony with their natural environment.In light of this change in the manner in which the past is recounted, Foner (2002) points out that although historical truths do happen to exist, it is often seen that the most difficult