Historical revisionism (negationism)
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Historical revisionism is the attempt to change commonly held ideas about the past. In its legitimate form (see historical revisionism) it is the reexamination of historical facts, with an eye towards updating historical narratives with newly discovered, more accurate, or less biased information, acknowledging that history of an event, as it has been traditionally told, may not be entirely accurate.
Historical revisionism (also but less often in English "negationism"[Negationism] is the denial of historic crimes. The word is derived from the French term Le négationnisme, which refers to Holocaust denial. It is now also sometimes used for more general political historical revisionsim as in:
), as used in this article, describes the process that attempts to rewrite history by downgrading, denying or simply ignoring essential facts. Perpetrators of such attempts to distort the historical record often use the term because it allows them to cloak their illegitimate activities with a phrase which has a legitimate meaning.
In some countries historical revisionism (negationism) of certain historical events is a criminal offence. Examples of historical revisionism (negationism) include Holocaust denial and Soviet history. Negationism relies on a number of techniques such as logical fallacies and appeal to fear. Negationism can be found in literature, for example Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell and is used by hate groups on the Internet.
- 1 Politically motivated historical revisionism
- 2 Techniques used by politically motivated revisionists
- 3 Law and historical revisionism
- 3.1 International law
- 3.2 Domestic law
- 3.2.1 February 23, 2005 French law on the \"positive value\" of colonialism
- 3.2.2 Holocaust denial
- 3.2.3 Turkey and the Armenian genocide
- 4 Examples of historical revisionism
Politically motivated historical revisionism
Historical revisionism can be used as a label to describe the views of self-taught historians who publish articles that deliberately misrepresent and manipulate historical evidence. An example of this usage is reported in a Washington Post article, "Conservatives Celebrate Winning One for the Gipper" [Conservatives Celebrate Winning One for the Gipper] by Lisa de Moraes in the Washington Post, November 6, 2003, Page C07:
- People for the American Way saw it in a different light [...] Our primary concern is continued right-wing intimidation against the expressions of opposing points of view, whether attacks on dissent, intimidation of scientific researchers, or a demand for historical revisionism -- or historical cleansing -- regarding Ronald Reagan. (emphasis added).
Techniques used by politically motivated revisionists
It is sometimes hard for a non-historian to distinguish between a book published by a historian doing peer-reviewed academic work, and a bestselling "amateur writer of history". For example it was not until Irving lost his British libel suit against Lipstadt and that he was found to be a "falsifier of history", that the general public realised that his books were outside the canon of acceptable academic historiesFalsifier:
.
The distinction rests on the techniques used to write such histories. Accuracy and revision are central to historical scholarship. As in any scientific discipline, historians' papers are submitted to peer review. Instead of submitting their work to the challenges of peer review, revisionists rewrite history to support an agenda, often political, using any number of techniques and logical fallacies to obtain their results. Because of this, they are considered by the historian community to be writing flawed History. Some of their most common rhetorical and other techniques include the following[[Citing sources citation needed]]:
- Conspiracy theories
- The selective use of facts
- The denial or derision of known facts
- Argument from ignorance (hence the historian community's emphasis on the importance of historical memory and historical studies)
- The assumption of unproven facts
- The fabrication of facts
- The obfuscation of facts
- Claims of "counter-genocide", leading to a confusion between victims and executioners (for example, the Bombing of Dresden in World War II has been said by Holocaust deniers to be a "counter-genocide", thus transforming the German people into victims and henceforth exempting them from any kind of moral responsibility; the term has also been used concerning the Rwandan genocide)
- Fallacy of equivocation
- Appeal to consequences
- Irrelevant conclusions
- Burden of proof (due to the complex nature of what can be considered a historical "proof" - which differs from a logical proof - revisionists sometime ask historians to further prove an event which has been reasonably proved by historic standards, hence accepted as a fact by the historian community)
- Appeal to fear
- Appeal to spite
- Association fallacy
- Hasty generalization
- The use of attractive or neutral euphemisms to disguise unpleasant facts concerning their own positions
- The use of unpleasant euphemisms to describe opposing facts
- The two wrongs make a right fallacy
- Wishful thinking
- Constant attack against those disputing their views (Ad hominem) (close to slander and libel)
- Meaningless statements
Law and historical revisionism
Historical revisionism of some issues (such as the Holocaust), in some countries, is a criminal offense. The Council of Europe defines it as "Denial, gross minimisation, approval or justification of genocide or crimes against humanity" (article 6, additional protocol to the convention on cybercrime - see below).International law
Additional protocol to the convention on cybercrime
An additional protocol to the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention, addressing materials and "acts of racist or xenophobic nature committed through computer networks," was proposed by some member States. This additional protocol was the subject of negotiations in late 2001 and early 2002. Final text of this protocol was adopted by the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers on November 7, 2002[Frequently asked questions and answers Council of Europe Convention on cybercrime] by the United States Department of Justice under the title "Additional Protocol to the Convention on cybercrime, concerning the criminalisation of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed through computer systems ("Protocol")[Protocol to the Convention on cybercrime, concerning the criminalisation of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed through computer systems] on the Council of Europe web site. The Protocol opened on January 28 2003 and entry into force is March 1 2006. By February 17 2006 6 States had ratified the Protocol and a further 24 had signed the Protocol but had not yet followed with ratifications[APCoc Treaty open for signature by the States which have signed the Treaty ETS 185.] on the Council of Europe web site.The Protocol requires participating States to criminalize the dissemination of racist and xenophobic material through computer systems, as well as of racist and xenophobic-motivated threats and insults[Frequently asked questions and answers Council of Europe Convention on cybercrime] by the United States Department of Justice. Article 6, Section 1 of the Protocol specifically covers the denial of the Holocaust and other genocides recognised as such by other international courts set up since 1945 by relevant international legal instruments. Section 2 of Article 6 allows a Party to the Protocol at their discression only to prosecute if the offense is committed with the intent to incite hatred, discrimination or violence; or to make use of a reservation, by allowing a Party not to apply – in whole or in part – Article 6.[Explanatory Report on the additional protocol to the convention on cybercrime]
The Council of Europe Explanatory Report of the Protocol states "European Court of Human Rights has made it clear that the denial or revision of “clearly established historical facts – such as the Holocaust – […] would be removed from the protection of Article 10 by Article 17” of the ECHR (see in this context the Lehideux and Isorni judgment of 23 September 1998)"[Explanatory Report on the additional protocol to the convention on cybercrime]. However the United States Government does not believe that the final version of the Protocol is consistent with the United States' constitutional guarantees and has informed the Council of Europe that the U.S. will not become a Party to the protocol[Frequently asked questions and answers Council of Europe Convention on cybercrime] by the United States Department of Justice.
Domestic law
February 23, 2005 French law on the \"positive value\" of colonialism
On February 23, 2005, the UMP ("Union for a Popular Movement") conservative majority at the French National Assembly voted a law compelling history textbooks and teachers to "...acknowledge and recognize in particular the positive role of the French presence abroad, especially in North Africa." [LOI n° 2005-158 du 23 février 2005 portant reconnaissance de la Nation et contribution nationale en faveur des Français rapatriés] Criticized by many historians and teachers, who refused to recognize that the French Parliament had a right to influence the way history is written, the law was also challenged by left-wing parties and in former French colonies. Several critics also pointed out that this refusal to acknowledge the racism involved in French colonialism was a form of revisionism.
In retaliation against the law, Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika refused to sign the prepared "friendly treaty" with France. In Martinique, Aimé Césaire, the famous author of the Négritude litterary movement, refused to receive UMP leader Nicolas Sarkozy, a probable contender for the 2007 presidential election. On June 26, 2005, Bouteflika declared that the law "...approached mental blindness, negationism and revisionism."
Supporters of the law were decried as a resurgence of the "colonial lobby", a term used in late 19th century France to label those people (deputies, scientifics, businessmen, etc.) who supported French colonialism. The public uproar surrounding this law finally pushed president Jacques Chirac to oppose himself to it and to his own majority (the UMP which had voted the law). In defiance of this revisionism, Chirac stated that "In a Republic, there is no official history. It is not to the law to write history. Writing history is the business of historians." "History should not be written by law" says Jacques Chirac (Ce n'est pas à la loi d'écrire l'histoire), quoted by RFI, December 11, 2005: [link] He then passed a decree charging the president of the Assembly, Jean-Louis Debré (UMP), with modifying the controversial law, taking out the revisionist article about the "recognition of the positive role of the French presence abroad". In order to do so, Chirac ordered Prime minister Dominique de Villepin to seize the Constitutional Council, whose decision would permit the legal repeal of the law. The Constitutional Council judged that history textbooks regulation is not the domain of the law, but of administrative reglementation. As such, the contested amendment was repealed in the beginning of 2006.
The debate lifted on the February 23, 2005 law point out, however, to a further debate in France concerning colonialism, which is linked to immigration. As the historian Benjamin Stora pointed out, colonialism is a major "memory" stake that is influencing the way various communities and the nation itself represent themselves. Official state history always had a hard time accepting the existence of past crimes and errors. Historian Olivier LeCour Grandmaison also criticized the law. Indeed, the Algerian war of independence (1954-1962), previously qualified as a "public order operation", was only recognized as a "war" by the French National Assembly in 1999. ; In the same sense, philosopher Paul Ricœur (1981) has underlined the needs for a "decolonization of memory", because mentalities themselves have been colonized during the "Age of imperialism."
Holocaust denial
Since the adoption of the term by Holocaust-deniers, historical revisionism has become stigmatized, and the term revisionist used as a description of suspect historical works dealing with the Holocaust. In Europe, historical revisionism more often than not refers to denial of the crimes committed by the Nazi state between 1933 and 1945 (the Holocaust, but also the Gypsy genocide (Porajmos), the murder of gay people and the assassination and sterilization of disabled people). Holocaust-deniers have attached themselves to the issue of the Heimatvertriebenen, and have in the view of their opposition attempted to use the sympathy for the plight of those Germans who suffered to blame the Jews for the suffering of the Heimatvertriebenen, or to retroactively minimise the suffering of the Holocaust.
David Irving, self-taught historian, lost his English libel case against Deborah Lipstadt and her publisher Penguin Books (for identifing him as a Holocaust denier"Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory" by Deborah E. Lipstadt. ISBN 0452272742), the trial judge Justice Charles Gray concluded that:
- "Irving has for his own ideological reasons persistently and deliberately misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence; that for the same reasons he has portrayed Hitler in an unwarrantedly favourable light, principally in relation to his attitude towards and responsibility for the treatment of the Jews; that he is an active Holocaust denier; that he is anti-semitic and racist and that he associates with right wing extremists who promote neo-Nazism." David Pallister [Author fights Holocaust denier judgment] in The Guardian June 21, 2001
- *Philip Johnston [Britons face extradition (to Germany) for 'thought crime' on net] in Daily Telegraph 18 February 2003
- *Brendan O'Neill ''[Irving? Let the guy go home'] [from Austria] BBC 4 January 2006
- *Malte Herwig [The Swastika Wielding Provocateur] in Der Spiegel 16 January 2006
- *
- *[July 14, 1990 Act prohibiting racist, antisemitic and xenophobic acts - loi Gayssot]
- *
- *
- *[About Switzerland laws] by the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Antisemitism and Racism
- * Philip Johnston [Blair's pledge on Holocaust denial law abandoned] in the Daily Telegraph 21 January 2000 and Lithuania.
Turkey and the Armenian genocide
Turkey has drafted laws like Article 301 that state "A person who explicitly insults Turkishness, or the Republic or Turkish Grand National Assembly of Turkey, shall be punishable by imprisonment". This law has been used, for example, to bring charges against writer Orhan Pamuk for stating that "Thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it".Sarah Rainsford [Author's trial set to test Turkey] BBC 14 December 2005. The charges were later dropped.Madeleine Brand speaks with Hugh Pope [Charges Against Turkish Writer Pamuk Dropped] NPR 25 January 2005.On Tuesday 7 February 2006 the trial opened against five journalists charged with insulting the judicial institutions of the State, and also of aiming to prejudice a court case (Article 288 of the Turkish penal code).[Writer Hrant Dink acquitted; trials against other journalists continue] IFEX 9 February 2006. The five were on trial because they criticised a court order to shut down a conference in Istanbul about the mass killing of Armenians by Turks during the Ottoman Empire – the conference was nevertheless eventually held after having been transferred from a state university to a private university. The case was ajourned until 11 April, when four of the journalists were acquitted on a technicality, while as of April 2006 the fifth, Murat Belge, remains on trial. If found guilty he faces a prison term of up to 10 years. The trial is seen as a test case between Turkey and the European Union (EU), which insists that Turkey must allow increased rights to free expression as part of the negotiations on EU membership. Benjamin Harvey [Fight halts Turkish journalists' trial] in The Independent 8 February 2006. Associated Press [Case Against 4 Turkish Journalists Dropped] in The Guardian April 11 2006.
The aim of the conference, organized by a number of academics and intellectuals, was to offer a critical look at the official approach to the events of 1915, a topic that has long been taboo in Turkey.Sarah Rainsford [Turkey bans 'genocide' conference] BBC News 22 September 2005.
Ironically, Article 301 was introduced as part of a package of penal-law reform introduced to bring Turkey up to EU standards, in the process preceding the opening of negotations for Turkish EU membership.[Turkey's new penal code touches raw nerves]'' EurActiv 2 June 2005, updated 14 November 2005. The Republic of Turkey does not deny the Ottoman Armenian casualties, but contests that they were genocide.
Examples of historical revisionism
Japanese war crimes
- See also Japanese imperialism
Furthermore, the history textbook controversy centres on how a junior-high history textbook called the "Atarashii Rekishi Kyokasho" or "New History Textbook" allegedly downplays or "whitewashes" the nature of Japan's military aggression in the First Sino-Japanese War, in Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910, and in World War II. The textbook was created by the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, a conservative Japanese organization, which, as its name implies, aims to reform the traditional and international view Japanese history in that period. It places less emphasis on the nature of wartime atrocities and de-emphasizes the subject of the Chinese and Korean comfort women, which some feel is at least partly inappropriate at the junior high level.
Japan's official policy is that publishers have the right to freedom of speech, however, the central government does have the right to stop it from being published.
Hibakushas and various historians have often criticized the attempts of downgrading the importance of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which they sometimes called "nuclear holocaust", as an example of revisionist history. ["Remembering the Atomic Bomb"] by P. Joshua Hill and Professor Koshiro, Yukiko, December 15, 1997, published in Fresh Writing
Soviet and Russian history
During the rule of dictator Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union, a variety of revisionist tactics were employed to ignore unpleasant events of the past. Soviet school books would constantly be revised to remove photographs and articles that dealt with politicians who had fallen out of favor with the regime. History was frequently re-written, with past events modified so they always portrayed Stalin's government favourably.
Russian textbooks on the 20th Century
The textbook History of Russia and the World in the 20th Century, written by Nikita Zagladin, in 2004 replaced Igor Dolutsky's . Zagladin's text was implemented under the guidance and encouragement of Vladimir Putin who wanted a textbook that was more "patriotic". Critics of the new book cite a lack of detail in addressing historical events such as the Siege of Leningrad, Gulag labor camps, Soviet attack on Finland and the First and Second Chechen Wars as serious factual innaccuracies. The Holocaust is not mentioned and the rule of Joseph Stalin is glorified.[Critics fear history book overlooks crimes] by Maria Danilova of the Associated Press in the Daily Herald August 17, 2004. Page A2The revisionist school of communist studies
According to John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, writing in their book In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage, many academic studies in the field of Soviet and Communist studies, especially in the area of History of the Soviet Union and regarding the history of the Communist Party USA by the so-called "Revisionist School" have generally taken a benign view of the Party while minimizing Soviet atrocities and the totalitarian nature of the movement"In Denial", Haynes and Klehr, see References. Pages 14-19.. Haynes and Klehr attribute the alleged biased stance of these historians, many of whom entered academia during the Vietnam War era, to anti-American and anti-capitalist sentiments"In Denial", Haynes and Klehr, see References. Pages 47-53..Miscellaneous
Crypto-revisionism
Crypto-revisionism is a derogatory term used to describe the act of engaging in negationism for primarily political purposes. The term "crypto" is intended to refer to the use of obscure, little-known (or misunderstood) reasoning and overblown statements in order to hide the true intent behind the author's actions (in the same sense that cryptography is used to hide a secret message from prying eyes).
The term "crypto-revisionism" is usually used in public circles in a demeaning manner. Authors often use the term as a way of suggesting that their opponents are trying to hide the truth and bury it with cryptic statements and muddling, distracting facts that are actually unrelated to the subject at hand.
Outdated terminology or ideas
Some history materials, especially those targeted to children or young adults, exclude or restate words and ideas that were widely used in a past era. #redirect This form of revisionism might avoid using terminology now considered offensive, or exclude political positions now considered unacceptable. Motivations vary widely, but might include avoiding controversy or hurt feelings, or producing a large distance between older and modern ideas. For example, in some American schools the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. are not presented in their entirety, as King frequently used racial terms such as negro, which was widely accepted when he used it, but in modern United States usage is generally considered outdated or offensive. #redirectSlander or Promotion
Revisionist history is also used to promote or slander persons, or promote or discredit an idea — for example, bringing evidence that Abraham Lincoln was homosexual, or that Winston Churchill was a Communist sympathizer; of course in these cases the goal would not be to downplay or ignore a figure or event, but rather to highlight or reveal a supposedly revised aspect of history, or one that was simply unknown or thought to be of little importance. #redirect Sometimes some historical figures are censored or hidden, such as James Wolfe in some Canadian history textbooks. #redirect Other times more famillar white/anglo males are de-emphasized in favor of women or non-white males, in an attempt to redress a perceived bias. #redirect Though this practice may be more politically correct, it also risks the loss of important figures.Historical revisionism in literature
In George Orwell's 1984, the government of the main character's country, nominally led by the enigmatic Big Brother, is constantly revising history to be in harmony with the current political situation. For instance, if the country is at war with another, then the official position is that they have always been at war with that country. If the situation changes, the civilians are brainwashed accordingly. In this novel, historical revisionism is one of the main policies of the propaganda arm ("The Ministry of Truth") of Oceania's government.Historical revisionism on the internet
As the internet is always in movement, sites being created and others erased, it may lead to the temptation of revising history by erasing traces and proofs of previous actions. The Internet Archive, for example, was created against such a loss of memory which reminds Orwell's 1984. According to a 2006 article by the Financial Times, "Wikipedia users expose flattery by political staff" and "revisionism" attempts by US senators- *
- *
See also
- Black Holocaust (or New World Negationism)
- Propaganda
- Big Lie
- Hate speech
- Information warfare
- Krypto-revisionism
- Catalan negationism
- Historical revisionism
References
- John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, In Denial : Historians, Communism, and Espionage, [Encounter Books], September, 2003, hardcover, 312 pages, ISBN 1893554724
- "Lying About Hitler: History, Holocaust, and the David Irving Trial" , by Richard J. Evans, 2001, ISBN 0465021530. The author is a Professor of Modern History, at University of Cambridge and he was a major expert witness at the Irving v. Lipstadt trial, and this book presents both his view of the trial, and much of his expert witness report, including his research on the Dresden death count.
Further reading
- [Untruth in the Classroom, 1994]
- [Why "revisionism" isn't]
- [Mad Revisionist: A parody site on historical revisionism]
- [Expert Witness Report by Richard J. Evans FBA] presented at the trial "Irving vs. (1) Lipstadt and (2) Penguin Books"
- [Revisionist History] - a satirical look at historical revisionism
- [Article about revisionism concerning the Amerindians] by The Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law.
- [Nizkor Project - antirevisionist website]
- [Left-Wing Deniers] - website attacking deniers of communist atrocities and genocides
- [Hellenic Genocide]
- [Hellenic Genocide:Horton's "Blight of Asia"]
- 1984 (book) by George Orwell
Footnotes
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