There is this phrase which says, "History is written by the victors." For much of human history, that seems to have been the case. Whoever had the power to write history were the ones who made history. Whether or not that version of history includes all the gory details, can sometimes be put into question.
For the most part, we cross-reference certain events and anecdotes with other narratives describing the same events or the surrounding context of those events, in order for us to see the bigger picture, since there's always multiple perspectives in a historical event.
We started with this because there are many historical markers installed throughout the US. More than 180,000 markers recounting different stories of people and events in US history have been placed in various states. They are supposed to capture a moment in time and place, but it seems that some of them have history wrong. Moreover, several of them are quite offensive.
This NPR special series tackles the way that certain historical markers erected in different parts of the US are attempting to rewrite US history, as well as describing other people groups like Native Americans and African-Americans in a bad light.
Currently, the federal government, or even the state governments, aren't doing anything about it because there's just so many historical markers that to try and revise each one is going to be a herculean task, and nobody has enough energy and resources to put into it.
Another reason why so many markers have been placed is because it only cost a few thousand dollars to order one. Originally, these markers were created to motivate Americans to travel to different states and spur their interest in the different towns, cities, and sights that other places have to offer.
So, with the relative ease of putting up these historical markers, it's probably no surprise how the number of historical markers skyrocketed, and the fact that nobody is regulating them, is one of the reasons why there are markers with competing claims or just downright problematic.
To see several examples of such historical markers, you may check them out here. Furthermore, there is also an online database that keeps track of all the historical markers throughout the US. So far, they have counted more than 211,000 historical markers to date.
(Image credit: Everydaypsyche/Wikimedia Commons)