Editing Historical revisionism (section)

==Basis for historical revision==
The process of historical revision involves updating the historical record to accommodate developments as they arise. The historical record may be revised to accommodate for a number of academic reasons, including the following:

=== Access to new data/records ===
The release, discovery, or publicization of documents previously unknown may lead scholars to hold new views of well established events. For example, archived or sealed government records (often related to national security) will become available under the [[thirty-year rule]] and similar laws. Such documents can provide new sources and therefore new analyses of past events that will alter the historical perspective.

With the release of the [[Ultra (cryptography)|ULTRA]] archives in the 1970s under the British thirty-year rule, much of the Allied high command tactical decisiomaking process was re-evaluated, particularly the [[Battle of the Atlantic]]. Before the release of the ULTRA archives, there was much debate over whether Field Marshal [[Bernard Montgomery]] could have known that [[Battle of Arnhem|Arnhem]] was heavily garrisoned. With the release of the archives, which indicated that they were, the balance of the evidence swung in the direction of his detractors. The release of the ULTRA archives also forced a re-evaluation of the [[history of computing hardware|history of the electronic computer]].<ref group="notes">In 1972, before the release of official documents about ULTRA, [[Herman Goldstine]] wrote in ''The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann'' page 321 that: "Britain had such vitality that it could immediately after the war embark on so many well-conceived and well-executed projects in the computer field." In 1976 after the archive were opened [[Brian Randell]] wrote in ''The COLOSSUS'' on page 87 that: "the COLOSSUS project was an important source of this vitality, one that has been largely unappreciated, as has the significance of its places in the chronology of the invention of the digital computer."</ref>

=== New sources in other languages ===
As more sources in other languages become available historians may review their theories in light of the new sources. The revision of the meaning of the Dark Ages is an example.<ref>{{cite book | isbn=978-0062980892| title=The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe| last1=Gabriele| first1=Matthew| last2=Perry| first2=David M.| date=2021| publisher=HarperCollins Publishers}}</ref><ref name="Nelson_2007">{{cite journal |last1=Nelson |first1=Janet L. |date=Spring 2007 |title=The Dark Ages |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/25472909 |journal=History Workshop Journal |volume=63 |issue=63 |pages=191–201 |doi=10.1093/hwj/dbm006 |jstor=25472909 |access-date=2024-06-28|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== Developments in other fields of science ===
[[DNA]] analysis has had an impact in various areas of history either confirming established historical theories or presenting new evidence that undermines the current established historical explanation. Professor [[Andrew Sherratt]], a British prehistorian, was responsible for introducing the work of anthropological writings on the consumption of legal and illegal drugs and how to use the papers to explain certain aspects of prehistoric societies.<ref>{{cite news|url =https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-andrew-sherratt-6107494.html|title= Obituaries: Professor Andrew Sherratt |work =[[The Independent]]|date= March 6, 2006|first = Paul|last = Halstead}}</ref> [[Carbon dating]], the examination of [[ice core]]s and [[tree rings]], [[palynology]], [[scanning electron microscope]] analysis of early metal samples, and measuring [[oxygen isotopes]] in bones, have all provided new data in the last few decades with which to argue new hypotheses. Extracting [[ancient DNA]] allows historians to debate the meaning and importance of race and indeed current identities.<ref>Christine Kenneally, ''The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures'' (2014)</ref>

=== Nationalism ===
For example, in schoolbooks' history on Europe, it is possible to read about an event from completely different perspectives. In the [[Battle of Waterloo]], most British, French, Dutch and German schoolbooks slant the battle to emphasise the importance of the contribution of their nations. Sometimes, the name of an event is used to convey political or a national perspective. For example, the same conflict between two English-speaking countries is known by two different names: the "[[American War of Independence]]" and the "[[American Revolutionary War]]". As perceptions of nationalism change, so do the areas of history that are driven by such ideas.  Wars are contests between enemies, and postwar histories select the facts and interpretations to suit their internal needs, The [[Korean War]], for example, has sharply different interpretations in textbooks in the countries involved.<ref>L. Lin, et al. "Whose history? An analysis of the Korean war in history textbooks from the United States, South Korea, Japan, and China." ''Social Studies'' 100.5 (2009): 222–232. [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/John_Hoge/publication/249038081_Whose_History_An_Analysis_of_the_Korean_War_in_History_Textbooks_from_the_United_States_South_Korea_Japan_and_China/links/55108ab00cf20352196c0c69/Whose-History-An-Analysis-of-the-Korean-War-in-History-Textbooks-from-the-United-States-South-Korea-Japan-and-China.pdf online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220217110137/https://www.researchgate.net/profile/John-Hoge/publication/249038081_Whose_History_An_Analysis_of_the_Korean_War_in_History_Textbooks_from_the_United_States_South_Korea_Japan_and_China/links/55108ab00cf20352196c0c69/Whose-History-An-Analysis-of-the-Korean-War-in-History-Textbooks-from-the-United-States-South-Korea-Japan-and-China.pdf |date=February 17, 2022 }}</ref>

=== Culture ===
For example, as regionalism has regained some of its old prominence in British politics, some historians have suggested that the older studies of the [[English Civil War]] were centred on England and that to understand the war, events that had previously been dismissed as on the periphery should be given greater prominence. To emphasise this, revisionist historians have suggested that the English Civil War becomes just one of a number of interlocking conflicts known as [[Wars of the Three Kingdoms]]. Furthermore, as cultures develop, it may become strategically advantageous for some revision-minded groups to revise their public historical narrative in such a way so as to either discover, or in rarer cases manufacture, a precedent which contemporary members of the given subcultures can use as a basis or rationale for reform or change.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Shindler|first1=Michael|title=A Discussion on the Purpose of Cultural Identity|journal=The Apollonian Revolt|year=2014|url=https://theapollonianrevolt.com/structure-purpose-cultural-identity/|access-date=April 10, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150419090905/https://theapollonianrevolt.com/structure-purpose-cultural-identity/|archive-date=April 19, 2015}}</ref>

=== Ideology ===
For example, in the 1940s, it became fashionable to see the English Civil War from a Marxist school of thought. In the words of [[Christopher Hill (historian)|Christopher Hill]], "the Civil War was a class war." After [[World War II]], the influence of Marxist interpretation waned in British academia and by the 1970s this view came under attack by a new school of revisionists and it has been largely overturned as a major mainstream explanation of the mid-17th-century conflict in [[Kingdom of England|England]], [[Kingdom of Scotland|Scotland]], and [[Kingdom of Ireland|Ireland]].

=== Historical causation ===
Issues of [[causality|causation]] in history are often revised with new research: for example, by the mid-20th century the status quo was to see the [[French Revolution]] as the result of the triumphant rise of a new middle class. Research in the 1960s prompted by revisionist historians like [[Alfred Cobban]] and [[François Furet]] revealed the social situation was much more complex, and the question of what caused the revolution is now closely debated.{{citation needed|date=March 2015}}