=Hilary Mantel channeling Robespierre on history=

The entire record of the human race has been falsified, it has been made up by bad governments to suit themselves, by kings and tyrants to make them look good. This idea of history as made by great men is quite nonsensical, when you look at it from the point of view of the people. The real heroes are those who have resisted tyrants, and it is in the nature of tyranny not only to kill those who oppose it but to wipe their names out of the record, to obliterate them, so that resistance seems impossible. Resistance to tyranny means oblivion. I will embrace that oblivion. My name will vanish from the page. History is fiction.