quote · Legacy record
Everyone knows history is written by the winners, but that cliche misses a crucial detail: Over time, the winners are always the progressives. Conservatism can only win in the short term, because society cannot stop evolving (and social evolution inevitably dovetails with the agenda of those who see change as an abstract positive). It might take seventy years, but it always happens eventually. Serious historians are, almost without exception, self-styled progressives. Radical views--even the awful ones--improve with age.
Everyone knows history is written by the winners, but that cliche misses a crucial detail: Over time, the winners are always the progressives. Conservatism can only win in the short term, because society cannot stop evolving (and social evolution inevitably dovetails with the agenda of those who see change as an abstract positive). It might take seventy years, but it always happens eventually. Serious historians are, almost without exception, self-styled progressives. Radical views--even the awful ones--improve with age.
Approximate author period: c. 1972 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Chuck Klosterman
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1972 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from documented birth year 1972; activity date not established; Wikidata Q367336, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q367336 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 153194; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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