Historical revisionism

Historical revisionism is the reexamination of the accepted "facts" and interpretations of history, with an eye towards updating it with newly discovered, more accurate, and less biased information. Broadly, it is a skeptical approach, that history as it has been traditionally told may not be entirely accurate, and that perhaps an accurate history is as unobtainable as a dispassionate autobiography.

A second common usage of the phrase "historical revisionism"

:Main article: Historical revisionism (political)

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Another usage of the term "historical revisionism" is to refer to attempts to revise history so as to present a more positive image of a previous event or person that is not supported by the true facts; or, more generally, "twisting" or "rewriting" history, without legitimate historical evidence, to promote some agenda. This is more accurately described as a form of propaganda. For example, people and groups that dispute widely accepted facts about The Holocaust, such as claiming a much lower number of Jewish deaths or that none were gassed or that the idea of the holocaust was a "Zionist conspiracy", have claimed to be "historical revisionists". See also "Holocaust revisionism".

Related Topics:
Propaganda - The Holocaust - Jew - Zionist - Holocaust revisionism

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The popular news media and many politicans have picked up on this use of term "historical revisionist," and as a result this newer meaning is now the more common meaning in popular usage. In a number of circles, because it has come to be associated only with this second meaning as a derogatory label, the term can have a purely negative connotation even when describing legitimate historical revisionism.

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