Historical Revisionism: Making Your Own Reality

The reason why I won't be lighting a match anytime soon to my set of Encyclopedia Britannica (1958) is because of a dirty little activity known as "history revisionism." You're asking: What is history revisionism? Revisionism attempts to alter the way a people views its history and traditions in order to cause that people
to accept a change in public policy.

There are many means used by revisionists to accomplish their goals but the most common are:

Patent lies. For example, numerous history textbooks make claims that our “national government was secular from top to bottom,” or that the Founders “reared a national government on a secular basis.” If you have read and studied the Founding of this nation (especially in a set of encyclopedias that dates back to 1958 or earlier), you would know that this is a lie.

Signing the Declaration of Independence

• John Adams, declared: “The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity.” (Even the text of the Declaration of Independence refutes any charges of government secularism.) You might as well write that James Madison used an atomic bomb to end the Civil War, or that the first sub-machine gun was developed in 1536 in Nevada by the Quakers). Revisionism relies on a lack of citizen knowledge in specific areas. Only an ignorant citizenry would have no knowledge of whether this were true, or not.

Selective Omission: Notice the following two examples from American history works:

We whose names are under-written . . . do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine our selves together into a civil
body politick. MAYFLOWER COMPACT, 1620. (That which is omitted after "written" is:   "for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God,"

Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? . . .        I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death? PATRICK HENRY, 1775. (That which was omitted after "slavery?" is: Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death? In the name of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity. It having pleased the Divine

John Adams

Providence to dispose the hearts.

• Also regularly omitted from texts is the fact that gratitude to God was central to the first Pilgrim Thanksgiving. 

• Another textbook said that "Pilgrims are people who take long trips." They were described entirely without reference to religion. One reference said the Pilgrims "wanted to give thanks for all they had" but never mentioned that it was God to whom they wanted to give thanks. 

• Also OMITTED is that fact that in 1782, the Congress of the United States was responsible for America's first English-language Bible; and that in 1800, Congress voted that on Sundays, the Capitol Building would serve as a church building and that by 1867, the largest protestant church in America was the one that met inside the U. S. Capitol; etc.

Benjamin Franklin

Lack of Primary Source References: 

When my daughter was in junior high, I borrowed all the history books for 6th-8th grade for a week to examine them for historical revisionism. This goes back to the early 1990s and even then, the textbooks were rampant with examples. I noticed that each text book would talk about our Founding Fathers, but there NO direct quotes from any of the Founders. In other words, the historian would devote a paragraph or two to Benjamin Franklin or John Adams, but would provide the reader with any excepts of John Adams' speeches or writings. The same for George Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and others.

I concluded that the goal of these texts was to make our Founding Fathers look and sound as boring and ancient as possible. I began to see a pattern that most public school textbooks did not want students to know about the religious roots of our nation's founding. They also wanted to keep students in the dark regarding the passion and love that our founders had for liberty and freedom. If a student were to be allowed to read some of the writings of any of these great men, they might actually get excited and begin to see what was so special about the founding of this nation.

I'll continue this with one more post on historical revisionism and how contemporary leftist historians have attempted to rewrite the history of the founding of Israel as well as her struggle against Arab domination since 1948.