Whig history

Definitions

An approach to historiography that presents history as a journey from an oppressive and benighted past to a “glorious present”.

countable, uncountable

Examples

“He [William Cronon] concisely explains that Whig histories tend⟳ to "praise⟳ revolutions [for history of science, we could read⟳ novelties, ideas or individuals]^([sic]) provided they have⟳ been successful, emphasise certain principles of progress⟳ in the past and produce⟳ a story which is the ratification if not the glorification of the present⟳".”

“The British, in other words, “do right” by their colonial subjects, referred to as “charges”, while the only massacres of the 19th century apparently were those committed by the Ottomans in the Balkans. This is Whig history on steroids, repackaged as a mirthless morality tale for the 21st century.”

CEFR level