Past, Present and Propaganda
Simon Heffer argues that until relatively recently most historians have been biased in their efforts to harness the past to contemporary concerns.
I was moved to write my extended essay, A Short History of Power, when I realised, after a lifetime spent reading (and, occasionally, writing) history books, that much of what I had read was simply propaganda. The real reasons why great powers undertook wars or other aggressive policies were often rather unedifying and best dressed up as matters of high principle. Also, many historians have used the struggles of the past to amplify their views about the present.
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