# Is history written by the winners? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 22, 2000, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-history-written-by-the-winners/20221 "2000-05-22T20:05:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2000, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-history-written-by-the-winners/20221/21 "2000-05-25T05:20:34Z")
Of course history is written by the winners. On a higher, university level they are able to present things diffently, but in eleementry and high school history is presented entirely by the “winners”. In high schol I never learned that Thomas Jefferson had slaves. The women’s liberatiooon movement was never meant at all. The social movements of the sixties in general were dismissed as “ineffective and having no lasting value” (Oh…I guess getting rid of segragation wan’t that important). Labor issues were not dealt with at all. In fact, my history classes in high school were more of a “war and elections” class. For a different side of US history I recommend A Peoples’ History of the United States, by Howard Zinn. It’ll show you what you missed. ---
**Author:** ![mrblue92](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@mrblue92](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrblue92)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2000, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-history-written-by-the-winners/20221/22 "2000-05-25T20:20:53Z")
> [@](#): > > turn our flawed founding fathers into mythological super-beings Cool. “It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No it’s _Super Washington!_ Faster than a speeding British warship! Able to leap the Potomac in a single bound!” “Yes children, he destroyed the evil British Army with fireballs from his eyes and lightning bolts from his arse…” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-history-written-by-the-winners/20221.md?page=1)