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After you have read the article from the Financial Times below, you might like to have a look at this BBC report on an Asian project where “educationalists and historians have been meeting across borders to attempt the seemingly impossible – a common history textbook for South East Asia. Not only will aim to accommodate diverse countries and a tangle of overlapping disputes, they will have to contend with countries wanting to revise their history books to reflect territorial claims. This ambitious task is taking place within the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) group of countries – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Textbook experts from the region met in Bangkok in Thailand last year to look at the idea of a common history.”

Have a look and see what you think.

Mr Kydd.

All,

It is only 20th January, and already we have had a deluge of comment on 1914. I though the best way forward would be to use this post as a place where you can find it all.

1. A good starting point is this BBC page which has many of their programmes and video reports on 1914.

2. Here Dan Snow debunks ten myths of the Great War.

3. 24/1 – Here the BBC looks at the censoring of war reporters in the war years.

4. 24/2 Here the BBC looks at The English expressions coined in the War.

 More to follow…

Mr Kydd.

Happy New Year all,

In part at least I expect that you are looking at 2014 in terms of your forthcoming examinations (keep going with the mocks revision by the way). It is however also the anniversary of some emotive, and thus politically sensitive events in British history.

This summer sees the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn (just before the Scottish referendum in September), and the 100th anniversary of of the start of the First World War. Politicans have already had much to say about both.

More of the former at a later date. However, the secretary of state for education, Michael Gove, has already written this article in the Dail Mail entitled Why does the Left insist on belittling British heroes ? attacking the representation of “the conflict…through the fictional prism of dramas such as Oh! What a Lovely War, The Monocled Mutineer and Blackadder as a misbegotten shambles – a series of catastrophic mistakes perpetrated by an out-of-touch elite.”

Unsurprisingly, the shadow secretary of state, the historian Tristrum Hunt disagrees. You can read his reply from the Guardian Michael Gove, using history for politicking is tawdry here. He argues that “contrary to the assertions of Michael Gove… the left needs no lessons on “the virtues of patriotism, honour and courage”. 

I have included links to both articles, so you can read them in their own words in full. There is also plenty more comment in the papers about this. Have a look and see what you think. One final point – is all of this helpful to us as historians ? Do we want politicans talking in the media about history anymore than we want historians in the media talking about politics (see my earlier post on the 2011 riots and David Starkey) ? One thing is sure, whether we want it or not, there will much more of this throughout 2014.

Mr Kydd.

Most of you will have seen this picture before. It shows the declaration of war in 1914, featuring what appears to be a young Adolf Hitler. The photograph was used by the Nazis to illustrate Hitler’s life-long loyalty to Germany. However, this letter to the Daily Telegraph from Dr Sean Lang from Anglia Ruskin University suggests that there are serious questions about its authenticity.

He argues “photographs of Hitler taken during the war show him with a large moustache, of the sort that was in fashion at the time. The practice of shaving moustaches down to a “toothbrush” shape seems to have been introduced during the war to allow men to wear gas masks more comfortably; the fashion was unknown before 1914.