"Sha Na Na and the Invention of the Fifties"

[stoutfellow]

The titular article, from 2008, is a discussion of the invention of tradition, focusing on the event described, but also touching on Highlanders and a variety of other areas. Very interesting, I think; and the authors present an aphorism that I've often thought about, but not so pithily:

The simple idea that “history is written by the winners,” is giving way to the realization that history is, of course, written by the writers; and that’s often quite a difference.

H/t to PNH at Making Light.

Comments

[mmegaera]

Yes, but they're usually writers hired by the winners. Which is probably the salient fact.