Bookstore Promotes Bookpack to Show Two Sides of History

History is like a puzzle: it is built either from the point of view of winners or losers, by those who have made history, and by those who have succeeded in changing its course. To learn both sides of the truth about what really happened in humanity’s past, a Chilean bookstore, Contrapunto, in collaboration with Y&R Chile, created a campaign titled “The Other Side of History” (or in Spanish, “El Otro Lado de la Historia”).

Because truth more often lies somewhere in the middle, the bookstore’s initiative aims to educate people about both sides of history, asking them to use filters and critical thinking, instead of just mindlessly reading the news or watching TV.

The Other Side of History | Click to enlarge

If history were written only by the winners, it would mean that our knowledge of the past is distorted. History, as we see it today, expresses a counterfeit world, because what we know today indicates what victors presented us with, according to their present and future interests. Winners have managed to influence the past and the present and are continuing to manipulate our beliefs, regardless of what happened in the past.

During the campaign, the bookshop provided an original promotion to its readers by offering two history publications at the price of one. These clever book packages, covered with a label that included the name of the campaign, encompassed two titles which approached the same history subject. Only there was an interesting twist: the promotional pack included two history books written from different points of view.

One of the book packs included “The Cuban Missile Crisis” by Hugo Montero and “The Kennedy Tapes” by Philip D. Zelikow and Ernest May, a combo that introduced readers to the historical drama of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

“No race, no country, no individual, has a monopoly of good or of evil,” said Winston Churchill, the historical figure who opposed Europe’s most prominent dictator, Adolf Hitler. Customers were invited to find out more things about their totally different beliefs through the Winston Churchill/Adolf Hitler pack, available at the store.

The initiative to bring two different versions of history together has been successful among history enthusiasts. After just one week of its launch, the library announced that the book duos were sold out.

As The Other Side of History campaign suggests, you can easily fall for the wrong perspective since “history is written by the victors.” You should rather read, study, analyze for yourself, and discover the real course of historical events that took place and have succeeded to influence present time.

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