Mike Duncan's The History of Rome podcast offers a fascinating observation about how historical narratives get simplified over time (9:04).
The example he gives is perfect: General Horatio Gates led the victory at Saratoga, which secured French support for the American Revolution—arguably the most critical factor in its success. But the story people know? "George Washington defeated the British."
This isn't just about giving credit to the wrong person. It's about how the subtleties and contingencies of history get flattened into simple, digestible narratives. The French alliance, the specific battles, the other generals—all compressed into one mythic figure.
We see this pattern everywhere in how we remember history. The complexity gets lost, and we're left with hero narratives that obscure how events actually unfolded. It's not malicious—it's just how human memory and storytelling work at scale.
The danger is that these compressed narratives then shape how we understand and make decisions about the present. We think history moves through great individuals rather than through the messy interplay of contingency, structure, and collective action.