The Uses and Misuses of History By Georg G. Iggers Misuses of history are not restricted to authoritarian regimes. Ambitions to make history research-oriented, and hence neutral, have often arisen at times of high politicisation. If they are to avoid arriving at untruths, historians must make critical analysis of their own point of view. The relationship between the uses and misuses of history is a very complex one.
Misuse suggests that the past is instrumentalized and distorted for political and other purposes.
It also means that there is a real past which must not be distorted. The misuses of history are not restricted to authoritarian regimes but occur in societies which at least on the surface permit a broad range of free expression. Below the surface the situation may be different. History has played a crucial role in the formation and maintenance of collective identities. Almost every people, Western as well as Eastern, Europeans as well as sub-Saharan Africans, North and South American Indians, and Pacific Islanders, has identified itself in terms of a historical experience going back to the past.