"History is the lie commonly agreed upon." What did Voltaire mean by this quote?
If everyone in the entire world who ever lived wrote down everything that happened to them and everything they observed and heard every second of every day, we might have an accurate history of the world in textbooks today. Unfortunately, that is not even remotely close to the case.
The history we know today is based off the viewpoints of the people who wrote it, and that means there is bias, and that only certain perspectives are expressed. In the United States for instance, as I mentioned in an earlier blog post, our history books have neglected to mention any stories of surrender. In America, it seems as if we have "agreed" to ignore those stories. Because we have ignored them for so long, they are not a part of the history that we learn today.
We are taught in schools that Paul Revere yelled "The British are coming!" all the way to Lexington to warn the people. We know this because of the common poem which states this information. The truth of the matter is that Paul Revere began this journey, but was captured and failed his mission. Paul Revere's name rhymed in the poem however, so this is what we are taught.
Common misconceptions are rampant in history books, and Voltaire's quote expresses this fact.
