HISTORY: The Scales of Justice

Careful historians are not exempt from unconscious biases. Jim Whelan scrupulously documents his work on Chile, but on the occasion of July 4 sent me two patriotic denunciations of British brutality during the Revolutionary War. For some reason,  he charged me with suppressing these patriotic truths. My reply:

"Of curse there was brutality on both sides. In addition, George Washington fought  two brutal wars against the Miami Confederation, which had established the Ohio River as the limit between the American settlers and themselves. The Americans crossed over and crushed the Indians, who were fighting for their independence, just as the Americans were.  In Chile today, the general talk is of the misdeeds of Pinochet and co, with little mention of the dangerous abuses of Allende against which they were an over-reaction. There are usually two sides to all these disputes, and sometimes three.  The task of WAIS is to make each side see the viewpoint of the other. Difficult! Try to get the Jewish Lobby to understand the viewpoint of the Palestinians.

Again, take evolution. It is now viewed as gospel, or rather anti-gospel truth that man emerged in Africa and spread from there. I once said that some scientists questioned this on the basis of discoveries in China. One venerable WAISer wrote me an angry message asking me how I could even mention such nonsense. Well, the subject has come up again in Nature and Science; Fred Heeren has summarized the debate well in
Insight (7/24/00).

Righteous anger does not advance the cause of historical accuracy.

Ronald Hilton - 7/18/00