History is a Myth

"History is a myth that men agree to believe."

-Napoleon Bonaparte


This somewhat humorous interpretation of the nature of history, says as much about the author as it does about his subject.  Besides commenting on the fact that the recorders and interpreters of past events control the direction of historical memory, the famous conqueror was dealing subtly with his own mortality.  As all men and women who have done great things (or otherwise), achievements beg recognition and remembrance.  Bonaparte knew that however high he might climb and who he might defeat in his bid for sole European power, one day he would have to leave the stage of life.  Would his legacy, his deeds, survive the scathing words of his enemies after he was gone?

Doubtless Bonaparte would be happy to note that the modern world has given him a wide study, and unlike many other heroes and villains of the past, a much more sympathetic understanding.  The upshot, is that in essence he was right.  Historians in particular make the past come to life in either all of its gory details or more often, smoothed over to hide the blemishes.  Neither should be done to the extreme for it robs the present and the future heirs of this human experience, the knowledge of deeds worth and not so worth emulating.  As much as possible, all aspects of history must be reviewed and considered to get at facts, if history is not to be presented as a compilations of should have been events, and moral points never intended by the authors.  To dispel the myth, honesty of the human condition must be reviewed in all of its splendor and decadence.

-John Lowe (J. Sharp)