Lucy Maynard Salmon on the Importance of Rewriting History
Thoughts on how & why history can be seen to change
“Many histories represent preconceived ideas rather than conclusions deducted from a study of facts…”
“[Each] new day may enable us to readjust our vision, to see the past in a truer perspective, to clear away the mists that have obscured the truth.”
Under the title Why History is Rewritten? Vassar College Professor Lucy Maynard Salmon wrote about why subsequent generations need to “rewrite” history. She did this in a 1912 article and in a posthumously published book in 1926 with that title.
In addition to the constant pursuit of a greater truth, Salmon advocates the rewriting of history for other reasons: new information and discoveries and new ways of studying history (could she have imaged the internet?).
