Antedating Quote "history is written by the victor" (1919)

Wed Dec 16 15:48:35 UTC 2009

Though 1903 calls it "an old saying," GB turns up nothing earlier in this
form.  I can't find anything in American Periodicals Series or Nineteenth
Century American Newspapers either.

1903 Henry W. Thomas _History of the Doles-Cook Brigade, Army of Northern
Virginia, C.S.A._ (Atlanta: Franklin) ix: It is an old saying, that the
victor writes the history of a struggle. This is nearly true of many wars
where the resistance of a people to superior force where the resistance of a
people to superior force failed of success. Lands overrun by conquerors have
been blighted, their resistance defamed and their heroes maligned in story,
and the records made up to suit the conqueror's policies. But the South was
never conquered. It was not understood by Lee and Johnston on the
Confederate part, nor Grant and Sherman on the Federal part, that surrender
meant subjugation.

1904  W. J. Murray, MD _History of the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment,
Volunteer Infantry C.S.A._  (Nashville: Pvtly. ptd.) 10 : The victors write
the history of the vanquished and control public sentiment whether it be
true or false, until it finds a lodgement in the public mind and becomes
settled as historical facts. Such is the course that our enemies at the
close of the war, and since, have attempted to pursue.

1930   William H. Allen _Rockefeller: Giant, Dwarf, Symbol_ (N.Y.: Institute
for Public Service)  529: "Victors write the history" applies to industrial
as well as military warfare.

JL

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 8:01 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Antedating Quote "history is written by the victor"
> (1919)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> What's interesting to me is that many/ most of the early exx. seem
> primaril=
> y
> descriptive or simply ad hoc. Some may even mean "written" in the
> metaphorical sense of "made."
>
> Apparently not till the late '70s did the phrase gain its aphoristic, even
> moralistic, force -- a "bitter truth." That was a time, paradoxically, when
> historical inquiry (at least in the West) in the West was freer and
> more nuanced than ever before.
>
> JL
> On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 12:38 AM, Garson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: Antedating Quote "history is written by the victor"
> > (1919)
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
> >
> > On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 5:36 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu>
> > wrote:
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > > Sender: =C3=82  =C3=82  =C3=82  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSER
> =
> V.UGA.EDU <http://v.uga.edu/>>
> > > Poster: =C3=82  =C3=82  =C3=82  Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> > > Subject: =C3=82  =C3=82  =C3=82 Re: Antedating Quote "history is
> writte=
> n by the victor"
> > (1919)
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
> > >
> > > Related (unconfirmed) uses:
> > >
> > > Historic fancies=C3=A2=E2=82=AC=C5=BD - Page 307
> > > George Sydney Smythe =C3=82 1844
> > > Vanquished =C3=A2=E2=82=AC=E2=80=9D his history written by the victors
> =
> =C3=A2=E2=82=AC=E2=80=9D Robespierre has
> > left a
> > > memory
> > >
> > > The conspiracy of Gianluigi Fieschi: or, Genoa in the sixteenth
> > century=C3=A2=E2=82=AC=C5=BD -
> > > Page xxiii
> > > Emanuele Celesia, David H. Wheeler - =C3=82 1866 -
> > > ... falsehoods so misrepresented events as to render history nearly
> > > impossible.
> > > ... courtly and salaried historians =C3=A2=E2=82=AC=E2=80=9D history
> wr=
> itten by the victors.
> > > ...accursed."
> > >
> > > Medical history from the earliest times: a popular history of the
> heali=
> ng
> > art=C3=A2=E2=82=AC=C5=BD
> > > - Page 133
> > > Edward Theodore Withington =C3=82 1894 -
> > > The history of the struggle has been written by the victors, who
> declar=
> e
> > that
> > > the iconoclast emperors delighted in destroying monasteries and burning
> > ...
> > >
> > > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans=C3=A2=E2=82=AC=C5=BD - Page
> 35=
> 5
> > > William Elsey Connelley -1918 -
> > > In Kansas the South lost, and the history of the Territory and the
> Stat=
> e
> > has
> > > been written by the victors =C3=A2=E2=82=AC=E2=80=9D those founding a
> F=
> ree State through much
> > ..
> > >
> > > Bonnie Scotland: and what we owe her=C3=A2=E2=82=AC=C5=BD - Page 61
> > > William Elliot Griffis - =C3=82 1916
> > > ... when success is won ! With the multitude, the end ever justifies
> > > the means.
> > > The accepted history of almost all wars is that written by the victors.
> > ...
> > >
> > > Stephen Goranson
> > > http://www.duke.edu/~goranson
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
> > Wonderful collection of citations! Thanks Stephen.
> >
> > Sometimes when searching for an earlier instance of a proverb or quote
> > I am uncertain if a particular citation fully captures the meaning of
> > a phrase. As reference books move online perhaps there will be more
> > space to trace the evolution of quotations and proverbs by listing
> > additional intermediate forms and precursors.
> >
> > I think this will be possible. But the economics of online resource
> > provision must somehow support it, and editors are already heavily
> > burdened I think.
> >
> > Garson
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --=20
> "There You Go Again...Using Reason on the Planet of the Duck-Billed
> Platypus"
>
>  ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

--
"There You Go Again...Using Reason on the Planet of the Duck-Billed
Platypus"

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org