History is written by those who care enough to write history. For over a 100 years historiography of the US Civil War was dominated by Southerners and there are

History is written by those who care enough to write history. For over a 100 years historiography of the US Civil War was dominated by Southerners and there are plenty of other examples of political losers being most influential in historical memory. Machiavelli ensured Cesar Borgia will live forever by his writing and both of them lost. Sima Qian was castrated. https://scholars-stage.blogspot.com/2016/11/history-is-written-by-losers.html?m=1 https://scholars-stage.blogspot.com/2016/11/history-is-writt... > To restate Sima Qian’s experience in less emotional terms: because he was principled enough to contradict the emperor in the presence of his court, Sima Qian was sentenced to castration. This was a death sentence—any self-respecting man of his day would commit suicide before submitting to the procedure. Everyone expected Sima Qian to do so. But in the end Sima Qian decided to accept the punishment and live the rest of his life in shame, because if he did not he would never finish the history he had started. > Not every historian has the balls to a challenge despot face-to-face. For despotic Wudi was—the castration of Sima Qian was hardly the most despotic thing Wudi would do before his reign ended. It is but one episode in a string of terrors, one paint-stroke in a portrait of tyranny. > But who painted the portrait? None other than the grand historian Sima Qian. We remember Wudi as Sima Qian chose to depict him. Had Wudi realized the influence his court astronomer would have on future generations, he might have treated him differently. But Wudi realized none of this. Sima Qian was published brutally and embarrassed publicly. He was a loser. > But in the end, the loser got his revenge.