Radicals

History is Written by the Winners

The saying, "History is written by the winners," is most famously attributed to Winston Churchill; however the the underlying concept of this theory has been around much longer than that. Radicalism, a theory created by a group known as radicals was created to answer the questions of why people separate themselves, and why the majority of historical documents consist of the upper-class's point of view. Radicalism states that the more successful, educated, and politically high-ranking people are the winners. These "winners" determine and write history as they want others to remember it. The people of low-status and insignificance, or "losers," are often not included in history books or are portrayed as the malignant opposers who were beaten by the champions, the winners who wrote those books. Historians came to the conclusion that we should go back and learn about those who weren't the winners, the majority of the human population. Only by doing this can we come close to understanding what actually happened in the past.

Examples

The theory that history is the history of victors is exhibited in the historical textbook American Journey. This textbook describes New York in the late 1800s and early 1900s by only talking about J. P. Morgan, one of the wealthiest men of all time, and Cornelius Vanderbilt, another one of the most affluent people in history. While this textbook could have mentioned a day in the life of someone in the working class in New York City, the authors decided to talk about Morgan and Vanderbilt because of their money, achievements, and political power. This information shows that the history textbook follows the theory that history is the history of winners, because the wealthiest people are written about in history, but the lower classes are not.

-Will Marx

The Gulf War

Peter Chen The Gulf War is a prime example radicalism. It took place in August of 1990-February of 1991. The first sparks occurred when Iraq invaded Kuwait in order to control the fresh oil fields as well as drive oil prices up, because at the time Kuwait was producing tons of oil therefore driving its prices down. Iraq also hoped to use the oil fields to pay off its debts. The United states quickly painted a picture of Iraq invading Kuwait for greed, and led 34 other nations to drive then out of Kuwait. After the United States were successful in their attempts to expel Iraq from Kuwait, the Picture of evil Iraq invading Kuwait out of greed stuck. If Iraq was successful in their attempts of capturing Kuwait, The story we know today might be that Iraq was just defending itself because Kuwait had drilled into Iraq underground for oil, or that Kuwait was intentionally driving the prices for oil lower. So in the end the winners, the US, wrote history the way they saw it. What history says about the Gulf War might be very different today if Iraq was successful in their attempts.

The American Revolution

Mia Guien The American Revolution is an excellent example of Radicalism due to the fact that children's American history book authors compose a minimum of 5 chapters about America's win against the British; while in Great Britain there is perhaps half a chapter in their history books. The American Revolution took place during the years 1775 through 1783 in the 13 original colonies. Americans were tired of dealing with Britain's taxes and trade restrictions, leading them to strive for independence and set up their own government. The first battle took place on American soil, and led to a full out war. In the end of the bloodshed that lasted a horrid eight years, the Americans came out victorious. The theory that " History is written by the winners" is evident in this war. The American people won the war and published their accomplishments and strategies. They filled up tons of books about the win and every battle they won. On the contrary, Great Britain lost the war and did not write as many books about their loss. Children in Great Britain might not be as knowledgable about the American Revolution as American children would be, showing that history is indeed written and taught by the winners.

The Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

John Boom- The Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a great example of Radicalism because most American history books view the bombings as a necessary means to end a bloody conflict, whereas in Japan, the country where the massive bombings took place, the attacks are viewed as inhuman unnecessary catastrophes. The air strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki took place at the end of World War II in 1945. The nuclear weapons took over five years to develop even with ample funding and some the world's greatest scientists working on the bombs. The bombs inflicted massive casualties and demolished two Japanese cities. Most American textbooks and Americans will argue that the without the bombs the war would have dragged on killing even more people, whereas many Japanese textbooks claim that the bombs were inhumane and unnecessary. This is a perfect exact of radicalism because the political-power determines in a specific region determines how the history in that region is written.

Native Americans During Westward Expansion

Daily Desenberg These days when we learn about Native Americans losing their land and being moved to reservations, the history books sometimes portray them as the bad guys for causing conflict by not wanting to move from their land. When in fact, the Americans moved onto their already settled land and pretty much forced them to move to the reservations. Most history books do not describe how drastically the lives of Native Americans changed at this time. Entire tribes were moved from their land to smaller reservations that did not have nearly as good of resources as their original land. The Native Americans did not have the supplies or the men to win the battles they had to fight to keep their land. If they had been able to beat the Americans and had been able to keep their land, things would be very different. History would be completely different. History would also be written completely differently.

The World Wars

Olivia Zhang - The Allied Forces' portrayal of Germany during the World Wars demonstrates a well-supported and defined example of a history written by the victors. A century later, our history books portray Germany as a malevolent and vicious nation during World War I and World War II. Blaming solely Germany for causing the tremendous damage in the aftermath of World War I, the Allied forces wrote the Treaty of Versailles with harsh, unwarranted conditions for the Germans. Also, during the second world war, just the word 'German' held an evil connotation, even though many Germans opposed the war and disliked the rise of the Nazi Party. Radicalism and history written by the victors spreads a profound view point and depiction of the Germans in our history books.

The Civil War

Audrey Ledbetter The Civil War, which occurred in the US from 1861 to 1865, is a prime example of the "history is written by the winners," theory. Most young children that learn about the subject are taught that the war was a war on slavery. That really was the cause if you ask the northerners, but if you ask the southerners, it is a whole different story. The southerners would tell you that the war was fought over states' rights, freedom, political, and economical power. This is an example of the Radicals' theory because, if the South won the war, the children would be learning much different things in school. The children would be learning about how the South wanted more power, and about states' rights. But instead, they are learning about slavery because the North won, and is proud that they won on that subject. The northerners did not want to write about states' rights though because they knew they were wrong.

The Surrender of Breda

Meryl Thomas The surrender of Breda was the ending result of a fight between Spain and Holland in the 1600s. Spain won the fight and the Spanish royalty had famous painter, Diego Velazquez paint the ending scene of the battle. The painting portrayed the Spanish as kind and very honorable people shaking hands and smiling as they took the key to the city from the Holland soldiers. However, the Spanish had a scaring reputation of being very rude and brutal when it came to winning battles. This example shows that the Spanish portrayed themselves differently than they acted, wanting others to think that they were more noble than they actually were. Thus proving that the statement "history is the history of winners" is indeed very true.

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The Punic Wars

Ashwini Bandi The Punic Wars, which took place between 264 and 146 B.C.E, are a good example of history being written by the victors. There were three Punic Wars that occurred in the Central Mediterranean areas, near modern day Turkey. All three of the wars were fought by the Romans and Carthaginians. Rome won all three of the wars. The third war was basically a siege against the people of Carthage, and many of them ended up dying from starvation. The Romans burned down Carthage and won the war. They later settled on the land. This war proves the fact that history is written by the victors, because Carthage was completely destroyed so there was no one left to write the history other than the Romans, or the victors of the war.