Bias In History
When I saw Dan Brown’s quote “History is always written by winners”, it made me think whether he was correct; is history only written by winners? If so, is there bias in history because it is only written by winners?
My real life situation is that Taiwanese history textbooks show bias in the information included and the view of the situation included. Whether information should be included in textbooks, or if both sides of an event should be included can be seen in a well-known event known as the ‘February 28 incident’, which is commonly part of many Chinese textbooks and syllabi. In the event, thousands of Taiwanese died at the hand of Chinese Nationalist forces. The event happened during 1947-48 when Taiwan was finally freed from Japan’s …show more content…
Therefore, my claim is that to a large extent, history is biased. As Samuel Butler (1835-1902) says, “God cannot alter the past though historians can.” History can be changed through the different biases of various historians depending on what they assume and publish. History can be changed by what was seen of past events. To keep record of said events, it was effective to immediately take note of the event, however, history can be easily changed due to the subjective viewpoint of the author. When you’re living through an event it may seem genuinely open and you can’t be sure on how it may eventually turn out, but when looking back on them, it is very hard to avoid the feeling that they’re inevitable and couldn’t have happened in any other way. This can easily link to hindsight bias. An example is that in March 1980, the US president Jimmy Carter sought to rescue seventy Americans who were being held hostage in Iran. The mission aborted as a sandstorm disabled half of the helicopter that was being used. The Journalist records it as “doomed from the start” but they wrote that after knowing the rescue had failed. Another common bias in history is conformational bias. A bad historian may be tempted to simply search for evidence to support his theory yet a good historian is likely to do the opposite and actively seek facts that goes against his hypothesis. Another important bias that affects history is national bias. Historians view other nations’ version of events with a predetermined perspective that casts a more favoured light upon themselves. An example that includes both national bias and conformational bias is that even during the same events, such as World War 2, each country had proof that would place the blame on others, while
My real life situation is that Taiwanese history textbooks show bias in the information included and the view of the situation included. Whether information should be included in textbooks, or if both sides of an event should be included can be seen in a well-known event known as the ‘February 28 incident’, which is commonly part of many Chinese textbooks and syllabi. In the event, thousands of Taiwanese died at the hand of Chinese Nationalist forces. The event happened during 1947-48 when Taiwan was finally freed from Japan’s …show more content…
Therefore, my claim is that to a large extent, history is biased. As Samuel Butler (1835-1902) says, “God cannot alter the past though historians can.” History can be changed through the different biases of various historians depending on what they assume and publish. History can be changed by what was seen of past events. To keep record of said events, it was effective to immediately take note of the event, however, history can be easily changed due to the subjective viewpoint of the author. When you’re living through an event it may seem genuinely open and you can’t be sure on how it may eventually turn out, but when looking back on them, it is very hard to avoid the feeling that they’re inevitable and couldn’t have happened in any other way. This can easily link to hindsight bias. An example is that in March 1980, the US president Jimmy Carter sought to rescue seventy Americans who were being held hostage in Iran. The mission aborted as a sandstorm disabled half of the helicopter that was being used. The Journalist records it as “doomed from the start” but they wrote that after knowing the rescue had failed. Another common bias in history is conformational bias. A bad historian may be tempted to simply search for evidence to support his theory yet a good historian is likely to do the opposite and actively seek facts that goes against his hypothesis. Another important bias that affects history is national bias. Historians view other nations’ version of events with a predetermined perspective that casts a more favoured light upon themselves. An example that includes both national bias and conformational bias is that even during the same events, such as World War 2, each country had proof that would place the blame on others, while