Who Wrote History — and Why Does It Matter?

Imagine two soldiers on opposite sides of the same battle. One wins; one loses. Both write down what happened that day. Would their accounts be identical? Almost certainly not — and that gap between them is where the real detective work of history begins. Historians do not just ask 'what happened?' They also ask 'who said so, and why?' Before we dive in, try the warm-up prompt below.

Historiography (say it: his-tor-ee-OG-ra-fee) is the study of how history is written — who wrote it, when, for what purpose, and what they left out. Every piece of historical evidence is called a source, and every source was created by a real person with their own viewpoint. Sources come in two broad types. A primary source is something made at the time of the event: a letter, a photograph, an official record, an artefact. A secondary source is something written later, after the event, such as a textbook or a documentary — it interprets the primary sources. Bias means a leaning toward one view rather than giving a balanced account. Bias is not always deliberate dishonesty; it often comes from what a person believes, who they work for, or what they want others to think. Historians recognise several common types: • Political bias — a government record praising its own decisions. • Cultural bias — an account that treats one culture as superior to others. • Selection bias — choosing only the evidence that supports one argument and ignoring the rest. • Anachronistic bias — judging people from the past by the values of today, without understanding their world. A source is not useless because it is biased. In fact, a biased source can be enormously valuable — it tells us what the author wanted people to believe, which is itself a historical fact. The historian's job is to interrogate every source: to question it, cross-reference it with other evidence, and weigh up what it can and cannot tell us. A famous example: the Bayeux Tapestry (made around 1070–1080 CE) depicts the Norman conquest of England in 1066. It was almost certainly commissioned by Bishop Odo, a Norman — so it presents the Norman view. It is still one of the most detailed records of the period, but a trained historian reads it knowing whose side it is on.