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Five Common Historical Myths That Simply Refuse to Die
These are stubbornly persistent
Myth and history have been intertwined for as long as humans have walked the earth. In ancient times they were often hard to separate, and in several persistent cases we’ve done no better in modern times. Sometimes it’s the result of laziness (on the part of both scholars and students) and sometimes it’s the result of people wanting to believe something so badly that they don’t let facts get in the way.
Today I want to continue my ongoing series by debunking five historical myths that have persistently endured, some for centuries and some for millennia. We’ve managed to correct other common myths, like young George Washington chopping down the cherry tree; let’s get rid of these as well.
1. Napoleon Bonaparte was short. This seems like a good place to start, as it’s the most enduring of the myths about the French emperor and general; even now we say that a short person with an overinflated ego has a “Napoleon complex.” In reality, Napoleon wasn’t short at all, at least not for the time in which he lived; at 5’7”, he was actually above average height for the time. Part of the myth comes from the fact that his height was reported as 5’2”, but this reflected the French measurement of the era, which was longer than the British one. His British enemies…
