What is revisionist history?

Question

how do you define revisionist history. Is it a good source of information or is it sometimes biased.

Answer 1

Hystory is almost always written with a bias, concious or not to reflect what the writer thinks it should have been. Other than hard facts, who was born in what year and when did they die or which war started and ended when and where there is usually a point of view as seen from the perspective of the writer, especially if his country was on the winning side. WE are the good guys and THEY whoever they are got what they deserved. Usually, the longer in the past these events happened, the more they tend to be, shall we say, adjusted to fit present ideas.

Answer 2

Bias is in the eye of the beholder.  Revisionist History is history rewritten because the author felt that the original was too bias and wanted instead, to convey his or her own agenda by putting a slightly different twist on things.  Is it a good source of information?  Only in that to REALLY get a good grip on anything, you should read more than one perspective and then form your own opinion.  You should always make yourself aware of the writers bias and agenda before accepting anything as point blank "fact."

Answer 3

History is ALWAYS written by the victors. Any sort of history is biased. You have traditional history, revisionist history, post revisionist history, etc. Each has it’s owns views.

Revisionist history is coming to a different conclusion(s) about somebody or something after thinking over it again.

Example:

Traditional: USSR started the Cold War.

Revisionist: US started the Cold War.

Post-revisionist: They both started the Cold War.

Just research and get the facts. If a figure is stated, or a view is expressed - find evidence for it!

Answer 4

'Bias' has got nothing to do with what 'revisionist history' is.

'Revisionist history' is an attempt to write a new version of historical events, that's contrary to the ACCEPTED version of events - not one biased account, not another biased account, but the ACCEPTED version

of events, that most people generally agree with.

For example, Puritan society was very strict; that's accepted by everyone.  If someone wrote an account saying that Puritan society was very liberal, that would be revisionist history.

Usually, this new view is based on newly-found data, so it can serve as a good source of information - even if you don't agree with the revisionist-history account.