Rewriting history, for convenience sake.

History is important to me, particularly the history of Britain or more specifically the history of the English, it should be important to everyone as it tells us who we are and how we got here.
Over the last 50 years though the nature of history has changed, or rather the teaching of it has. Gone now are the interesting bits, the battles, the heroes even the way life was lived. In came social and economic history which whilst of interest to some, was pretty much guaranteed to put kids off studying the past. It was deliberate I'm sure, removing the Magna Carta and the Bill of rights from being taught as well as the titanic struggles against European superpowers of the day (mostly France, occasionally Spain a couple of times Germany) So our kids no longer have a sense of who they are and why we should be who we are. The same no doubt applies in Wales and Scotland, although they are still allowed to be proud to be Welsh and Scottish respectively.

Telegraph.

History of England starts at 1700, says university

Academics have attacked a decision by a top university to scrap research into English history before 1700.

It was claimed that the move by Sussex University risked jeopardising the nation’s understanding of the subject and “entrenching the ignorance of the present”.

Under plans, research and in-depth teaching into periods such as the Tudors, the Middle-Ages, Norman Britain, the Viking invasion and the Anglo-Saxons will be scrapped, along with the Civil Wars. 

The university will also end research into the history of continental Europe pre-1900, affecting the study of the Napoleonic wars and the Roman Empire.

The university said it was “reshaping” its curriculum and research following a £3m cut in Government funding.

Last week, universities across the country were told their budgets were to be slashed by £449 million next year, including a £215m reduction in teaching funding, with threats of further cuts in the future.

Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, has claimed that institutions can use the opportunity to focus resources on their strongest areas.

But in a letter to The Daily Telegraph, 17 leading historians said the move was short-sighted and risked undermining the public’s understanding of the past.

“To cut everything but the most modern puts in peril the public function of history, entrenching the arrogance of the present and making a mockery of the claim by the

minister behind these cuts that 'we also wish to keep this country civilised',” said the letter.

The academics, who all trained at Sussex, said that the decision to sever ties with European history before 1900 was a particularly retrograde step.

“For a university which has long prided itself on its European links to abandon the serious study of such pivotal areas of modern history as the French Revolution will mean depriving Sussex graduates of the mental furniture of educated Europeans,” said the letter. “The university risks damaging its reputation as a centre of knowledge for European culture and history more widely.”

The letter to the Telegraph was signed by historians from universities including Nottingham, Southampton, Trinity College Dublin, Michigan, Sydney University and the University of London Institute in Paris.

 The title is a bit of a misnomer, English history more or less ended in 1701 with the Act of Settlement, followed up in 1707 with the Act of Union. It then became British history. So for all England had history from 300 years ago, it was all tied up in Empire and expansion and was the history of the Union.
Since devolution however the strains are beginning to show, the Scots showing the way, even choosing a national anthem containing the words "To be a nation again" and so there is a chance of England and English history beginning to flower again providing we can remove the social liberal taint from education.
We need to be showing our kids the history of our lands and not just the gung ho heroic stuff, but the bad stuff as well, where mistakes were made but also the basic rights that were obtained from them. Many people think the Magna Carta granted rights to the English (assuming they even know what it is) but it didn't, it confirmed those rights, we already had rights and it was the then King (read todays government) who was trying to override those rights. Since 1997 more and more of our rights have been stripped away by this perfidious government, had our kids had a decent education in history it would have been so much harder for the government to do this. But people just do not know what they are losing, they say "done nothing wrong, nothing to fear" despite the mounting evidence that we do actually have something to fear from the political classes and their desire for power and control over us.


The English need to be looking at our history, reinforcing our rights and removing any and all government from the EU down who trample over our ancient hard won rights.
Freedom has to be fought for, be vigilantly guarded, we have sleepwalked into tyranny and it all started when we lost our history and had it replaced by mind numbing dullness from social engineers of the left.