posted
Is the phrase "History is written by the winners" or some variant of it, a generic proverb, or did someone actually say it, and it's been quoted or misquoted ever since?
I've seen it attributed to Alex Haley, author of Roots (1976), but the phrase was surely around before then? He's presumably quoting it, rather than inventing it.
I've also seen it attributed to German philosopher Walter Benjamin (1892-1940). If he made it up, where did he first say it?
Anyone?
-------------------- Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. Posts: 2372 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
I will attribute it to me, yesterday afternoon at about 3:15 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.
But I do seem to remember that it was VERY hold - like Pliny the Elder/Younger old or similarly old.
-------------------- Opinions aren't excuses to remain ignorant about subjects, nor are they excuses to never examine one's beliefs & prejudices...
Babies are like tattoos. You see other peoples' & they're cool, but yours is never as good & you can't get rid of it. Posts: 5622 | From: Jax, Florida | Registered: Nov 2003
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guruwan2b
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
So far I have seen it attributed to Churchill and Hitler, but not by any reliable source.... Off to google some more
Kim "googling - winner writes history; victor writes history - victorious write history...
-------------------- Too much of this navel gazing and we'll disappear up our own arses. Danvers Carew Posts: 7465 | From: Oklahoma | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
I've read that "History is written by the winners" is a generalized adaptation of a quote that is only attributed to Napoleon: "History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon."
But I suspect that there may be an older or even an exact source...
-------------------- The salty fragrance of L’EauD’I’mNotDedalus - made entirely of and entirely for sea turtles. Posts: 1983 | From: Chicagoland, IL | Registered: Feb 2005
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guruwan2b
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
From a Celtic site "history is written by those who have hanged heros" attributed to the opening narative of Braveheart...
-------------------- Too much of this navel gazing and we'll disappear up our own arses. Danvers Carew Posts: 7465 | From: Oklahoma | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
Thanks for your help - this one's a bit of a bugger really. I suspect it's very old, but it's one of these things that's attributed to lots of different people because lots of different people have said it, or have said something very similar.
-------------------- Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. Posts: 2372 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jul 2002
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guruwan2b
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
So many times when you see it, it is called an old adage, or axiom.
I have also seen the quote "There is only one version of history, the winner's."
-------------------- Too much of this navel gazing and we'll disappear up our own arses. Danvers Carew Posts: 7465 | From: Oklahoma | Registered: Oct 2001
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"History is the polemics of the victors." - Wm. F Buckley, Jr.
"Memory says, 'I did that.' Pride replies, 'I could not have done that.' Eventually, memory yields." - Nietzsche
"The history of a nation is, unfortunately, too easily written as the history of its dominant class." - Kwame Nkrumah
All cited in "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James W. Loewen
-------------------- "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are." - Anthelme Brillat-Savarin "That lonely recluse who lives down the road is crying out. So is that pregnant teenager. And the prostitute. And the drunkard." Join the Free State Project - I did! Posts: 1516 | From: *sigh* Elmira, NY | Registered: Sep 2001
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Joe Bentley
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
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You know while I don't doubt the literal truth of the phrase, isn't it rather nonsensical? I mean isn't one of the main tennents of a successful civilization its mark on history?
So isn't whether you got to write your place in history a major factor in if you "won" or not?
-------------------- "Existence has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long." - Rorschach, The Watchmen Posts: 8929 | From: Norfolk, Virginia | Registered: Jun 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Joe Bentley^2: You know while I don't doubt the literal truth of the phrase, isn't it rather nonsensical? I mean isn't one of the main tennents of a successful civilization its mark on history?
So isn't whether you got to write your place in history a major factor in if you "won" or not?
But I think the nature of the OP's quote is driving more towards how you "won," and the supposition that a winner will gloss over their means in order to present a more successful history, free of scrutiny. This frame of thought, if we apply it to the OP's quote, is in line with Orwell's, "He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future."
-------------------- The salty fragrance of L’EauD’I’mNotDedalus - made entirely of and entirely for sea turtles. Posts: 1983 | From: Chicagoland, IL | Registered: Feb 2005
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damsa
The Red and the Green Stamps
posted
With the number of Jefferson Davis highways vs the number of Abraham Lincoln highways, one would think that in fact the South won.
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