Judging historical people on today's social standards. . .

[Dennis Urban]

(12-02-2019 03:09 PM)LincolnMan Wrote:  

(12-02-2019 02:26 PM)Mylye2222 Wrote:  You simply can't judge historical characters by today's standards. To understand them, you have to appreciate the whole environment they were living in. Today's political correcteness and repentance culture requires to dimiss history and revise it. Revisionism is politically motivated, and in the worst way.
Example :Had Lincoln racial préjudice? Yes he had some. Was he a racist?? By today's standards, kind of!! But for a man of his era, he was far less racist than his contemporaries. Plus, over time, the few prejudices he may have harbored decreased.

Absolutely agree.

Kudos to Mylye222 for expressing this sentiment which I have also long advocated (and welcome to the forum). I do a fair number of speaking engagements every year and I always advise my audience to better understand history by reading period first-hand accounts and not to try to judge what was in people's minds at the time based on today's revisionist historians' writings. No one today can truly assess what the people living at the time actually thought other than reading their own words. Deal with their thoughts, based on their experiences, as they expressed them in their letters and writings. Letters, diaries, and writings of the common folks are most important in this regard. I will now step off the soap box.