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"Template:Ref), 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.

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Politically motivated historical revisionism

Historical revisionism can 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" Template:Ref:

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).

This usage has occurred because some authors who publish articles that deliberately misrepresent and manipulate historical evidence (such as David Irving, a proponent of Holocaust denial), have called themselves "historical revisionists"Template:Ref. This label has been used by others pejoratively to describe them when criticising their work. For example, some people have published popular histories that challenge the generally accepted view of a given period, such as the Holocaust. They do this by downplaying its scale and whitewashing other Nazi war crimes while emphasising the suffering of the Axis populations at the hands of the Allies and stating or implying that the Allies committed war crimes as well.

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Techniques used by politically motivated revisionists

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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 historiesTemplate:Ref.

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:

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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).

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International law

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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, 2002Template:Ref 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")Template:Ref. 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 ratificationsTemplate:Ref.

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 insultsTemplate:Ref. 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.Template:Ref

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)"Template:Ref. 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 protocolTemplate:Ref.

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Domestic law

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February 23, 2005 French law on the "positive value" of colonialism

On February 23, 2005 a law was passed in France compelling history textbooks to "...acknowledge and recognize in particular the positive role of the French presence abroad, especially in North Africa." Template:Ref

This law has been criticized by many historians and university teachers, who refuse to recognize that the French Parliament has a right to influence the way history is written. It is also challenged by left-wing parties and ex-French colonies such as Algeria, who in retaliation have refused to sign any "friendly treaty" with France. In defiance of the law, Aimé Césaire, the Martinican author of Négritude, refused to receive UMP leader Nicolas Sarkozy, a probable contender for the 2007 presidential election. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, president of Algeria, declared on June 26, 2005 that this law "...approached mental blindness, negationism and revisionism." Template:Ref

Supporters of this controversial law have been decried 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 has pushed French president Jacques Chirac to oppose it. This comes despite the majority of his party, the "Union for a Popular Movement" (UMP), voting in favor of the law. In defiance of this revisionism, Chirac has stated:

In a Republic, there is no official history. It is not to the law to write history. Writing history is the business of historians. Template:Ref

President Jacques Chirac 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. Template:Ref

As French historian Benjamin Stora has 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 has a hard time accepting the existence of the past crimes and errors. 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. Template:Ref In the same sense, philosopher Paul Ricoeur (1981) has underlined the needs for a "decolonization of memory", because mentalities themselves have been colonized during the "Age of imperialism."

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Holocaust denial

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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 againt Deborah Lipstadt and her publisher Penguin Books (for identifing him as a Holocaust denierTemplate:Ref), 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." Template:Ref

On February 20, 2006, Irving, was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison for Holocaust denial, under Austria's 1947 law banning Nazi revivalism and criminalising the "public denial, belittling or justification of National Socialist crimes"Template:Ref. Austria along eleven other countriesTemplate:Ref which include, Belgium (1995 Negationism Act), France (1990 Loi Gayssot), Germany, Lithuania, Poland and Switzerland (article 261bis of the Penal Code), have passed a law which makes denial of the Holocaust a criminal offence, which may be punished by prison sentence.Template:Ref.

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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".Template:Ref The charges were later dropped.Template:Ref

On Tuesday 7 February 2006 the trial of five journalists accused of insulting the country's courts opened. 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 held as scheduled 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. Template:Ref Template:Ref

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 Template:Fact. The Republic of Turkey does not deny the Ottoman Armenian casualties, but contests that they were genocide. Until now, it has not been tested in court whether Article 301 applies to calling the Ottoman Armenian casualties "genocide", a term that has not actually been used by any of the accused Template:Fact.

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Examples of historical revisionism

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Japanese war crimes

See also Japanese imperialism

Historical attempts by Japan at downgrading the various war crimes committed by Japanese imperialism are seen by some as examples of revisionist history Template:Ref. The successive visits of Prime minister Junichiro Koizumi to the Yasukuni Shrine, where war criminals are buried, have each time lighted a political storm in Asia Template:Ref.

Furthermore, the history textbook controversy centres on how a junior-high history textbook called the "Atarashii Rekishi Kyokasho" or "New History Textbook" 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 revise Japanese history to suit its rightist ends. It glosses over wartime atrocities, de-emphasizes the subject of the Chinese and Korean comfort women.

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. To be exact, the majority of textbooks in circulation are not the ones being contested, but a small minority of the history texts put out by conservative organizations.

On the contrary, 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. Template:RefTemplate:Ref

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Soviet and Russian history

Image:The Commissar Vanishes 1.jpg Image:The Commissar Vanishes 2.jpg

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.

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Russian actual 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 National History: 20th Century. 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.Template:Ref

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The 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 movementTemplate:Ref. 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 sentimentsTemplate:Ref.

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Miscellaneous

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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. Template:Fact 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. Template:Fact

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Slander 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. Template:Fact Sometimes some historical figures are censored or hidden, such as James Wolfe in some Canadian history textbooks. Template:Fact 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. Template:Fact Though this practice may be more politically correct, it also risks the loss of important figures.

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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.

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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 Template:Ref. Spam attempts such as the one made by Serdar Argic on usenet to deny the Armenian genocide are also used. The Nizkor Project is dedicated to struggling against revisionism on the web, although it is against hate speech crime laws on the internet.

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See also

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Bibliography

  • 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.
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Footnotes

  1. Template:Note 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:
  2. Template:NoteConservatives Celebrate Winning One for the Gipper by Lisa de Moraes in the Washington Post, November 6, 2003, Page C07
  3. Template:Note"Lying About Hitler", Evans, see Bibliography. Page 145.
  4. Template:Note Falsifier:
  5. Template:Note Frequently asked questions and answers Council of Europe Convention on cybercrime by the United States Department of Justice
  6. Template:Note 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
  7. Template:NoteAPCoc Treaty open for signature by the States which have signed the Treaty ETS 185. on the Council of Europe web site
  8. Template:Note Frequently asked questions and answers Council of Europe Convention on cybercrime by the United States Department of Justice
  9. Template:Note Explanatory Report on the additional protocol to the convention on cybercrime
  10. Template:Note Explanatory Report on the additional protocol to the convention on cybercrime
  11. Template:Note Frequently asked questions and answers Council of Europe Convention on cybercrime by the United States Department of Justice
  12. Template:Note LOI n° 2005-158 du 23 février 2005 portant reconnaissance de la Nation et contribution nationale en faveur des Français rapatriés
  13. Template:NoteTemplate:Cite news
  14. Template:Note "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: [1]
  15. Template:Note Template:Cite news
  16. Template:Note Template:Cite news; Template:Cite news
  17. Template:Note"Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory" by Deborah E. Lipstadt. ISBN 0452272742
  18. Template:NoteDavid Pallister Author fights Holocaust denier judgment in The Guardian June 21, 2001
  19. Template:Note Oliver Duff David Irving: An anti-Semitic racist who has suffered financial ruin 21 February 2006
  20. Template:Note Holocaust denier Irving to appeal BBC 21 February 2006. "Austria is one of 11 countries with laws against denying the Holocaust."
  21. Template:Note Laws against denying the Holocaust.
  22. Template:NoteSarah Rainsford Author's trial set to test Turkey BBC 14 December 2005.
  23. Template:NoteMadeleine Brand speaks with Hugh Pope Charges Against Turkish Writer Pamuk Dropped NPR 25 January 2005.
  24. Template:Note Benjamin Harvey Fight halts Turkish journalists' trial in The Independent 8 February 2006
  25. Template:Note Associated Press Case Against 4 Turkish Journalists Dropped in The Guardian April 11, 2006
  26. Template:Note"Forgiving the culprits: Japanse historical revisionism in a post-cold war context published in the International Journal of Peace Studies
  27. Template:NoteTemplate:Cite news
  28. Template:Note"Remembering the Atomic Bomb" by P. Joshua Hill and Professor Koshiro, Yukiko, December 15, 1997, published in Fresh Writing
  29. Template:NoteTemplate:Cite news
  30. Template:Note Critics fear history book overlooks crimes by Maria Danilova of the Associated Press in the Daily Herald August 17, 2004. Page A2
  31. Template:Note"In Denial", Haynes and Klehr, see Bibliography. Pages 14-19.
  32. Template:Note"In Denial", Haynes and Klehr, see Bibliography. Pages 47-53.
  33. Template:Note Template:Cite news
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External links

fr:Négationnisme ja:否認主義 nl:Negationisme fi:Holokaustin kieltäminen

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