History, the fishy side

• Voltaire said, " History is the lie commonly agreed on". Is it all necessarily a lie though? I mean yes it is a lie at times but it holds some truth. We look at information about Jamestown and Plymouth. Some books say Plymouth was first when really is was Jamestown by 13 years. Why do they think that though? As my teacher explained today when the history was first written about the first permanent settlement it was done at Harvard, which is closer to Plymouth than Jamestown. At the time communication was not as easy as it is today so they believed they were the first settlement, it was a commonly agreed upon lie, rather they knew about it or not. It holds truth that it was a early permanent settlement but they lie about it being the first. So to say history is the lie commonly agreed on or that history is written by the winners isn't entirely true, but it does explain some events represented in our books today.