All history is revisionist history. We understand our past by continually redefining as new facts emerge, and we reinterpret old ones. As a result, facts that seem indisputable become disputed when given enough time. Take, for instance, an example from the football world. Today, if you ask the average football fan or a historian of the game when they played the first Rose Bowl game, they will tell you it occurred in 1902. However, if you transported yourself back to the early 1930s to ask the same question, they would say the first game came in 1916. What gives? How could people living ninety years closer to the actual event provide the wrong answer to a question whose answer is widely known today?
How We Forgot, Then Remembered The 1902 Rose Bowl
How We Forgot, Then Remembered The 1902 Rose…
How We Forgot, Then Remembered The 1902 Rose Bowl
All history is revisionist history. We understand our past by continually redefining as new facts emerge, and we reinterpret old ones. As a result, facts that seem indisputable become disputed when given enough time. Take, for instance, an example from the football world. Today, if you ask the average football fan or a historian of the game when they played the first Rose Bowl game, they will tell you it occurred in 1902. However, if you transported yourself back to the early 1930s to ask the same question, they would say the first game came in 1916. What gives? How could people living ninety years closer to the actual event provide the wrong answer to a question whose answer is widely known today?