Learning the lessons of history

Austin Barry

- The London Bombings 2005.

The first significant action of Islamic terrorism towards the instigation of the UK Caliphate. It will be the first of many such outrages.

Anthony

Reform Act is indeed a glaring omission.

I'd just say, having scanned the list briefly, that it would probably be helpful if public knowledge of the First World War was not filtered entirely through the lens of the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Also, Agincourt wasn't just about longbows.

undignified

Henry VIII's break with the Catholic church was rather important. Even if it was the 1559 settlement that eventually enshrined it.

Danny

The First World War cannot be summarised as the Battle of the Somme, and the Second World War: the Blitz. Surely the whole of the wars are worth learning about - otherwise history just become about individual events without the context that makes them what they are.

Tanuki

That list is very hot on the 'people' but rather sparse on the 'things' I think are significant.

I'd include:

Turbinia [1894] - first steam-turbine-powered ship (fastest in the world at the time!).

1942(?) Cavity Magnetron [the foundation of serious RADAR - and the microwave oven]

1943(?) Colossus - first modern computer.

Calder Hall (1957) - first commercial nuclear power station.

Jean Monnet *hearts* Dave

-- Francis Maude and Douglas Hurd sign the Maastricht Treaty, consigning the United Kingdom to the status of a satrap 1992

Nigel Barlow

It's a massive area of debate Peter.And an important one too as what we are talk about history during our education will frame to some extent our future thinking.So is it dangerous to laeve it in the hands of the state or is it dangerous to leave it up to schools.
Then comes the question of what you put on the list,there are some ommissions from the History channel list,I would go back futher in time and say the period of Henry VIII and the subsequent religious persecutions should be added as should the causes of the civil war. But that argument could and probably will go on for ages.

Nick Wood

Forgive my ignorance but what is the Doom book? I'm aware of William I's Doomsday book but not Alfred's Doom book.

Anthony

As far as I'm aware, it's technically not possible for there to be a "UK Caliphate".

Maisie

The Black Death of 1340's.

Society in England changed significantly after something like 40% of the population was decimated. The upside of this that the peasant found his muscle and market forces sprung into action.

Without it would we have had the Peasant's Revolt?

Bede

It's a bit light on Europe isn't it? Where's the Reformation and Napoleon? And yes there was more to the First World War than the Somme.

C Powell

The Easter uprising and the Partition of Ireland (and all that flows from that). I'd take out the rules of football and the Beatles - this is cultural history. How the Empire was created and dismantled is also necessary in order to understand Britain's place in the world now. There should also be room for Britain's contribution to the Enlightenment and 19th C political thought: Ednund Burke, Thomas Paine, Hobbes, Locke etc. The Channel Tunnel is quite unimportant by comparison. But essentially, a student should know by the time they left school a chronology of all the key events, developments, monarchs etc from the Middle Ages to date and some topics in more depth. What they shouldn't have is just bits and pieces from all over the place without any overall narrative or framework to fit it into.

Nicholas

Not just the Blitz but the British resistance to Hitler from say, the withdrawal from Dunkirk to the entry of the USA in December 1942, including of course the Battle of Britain.

Some of the more recent 'Things' look a bit BBC.

Forlornehope

The black death - for a bit of light relief

The Stephensons, Brunel and the coming of the railways - possibly a bigger social and technological change than anything in the 20th century.

Christopher Chantrill

The most likely result of education decentralization would be a return to traditional history. It is the centralizing lefties in the education system that have forced on us the present empathetic, multi-culti curriculum.

By the way, I'll bet you'd find that Blackadder and Baldrick did a pretty good job of covering the Top Fifty.

Play

The Civil War period seems rather undernourished, but crucial to any understanding of British history, as is the birth of Empire, born of Britain's maritime nature. Also, British humour begins in the 1960s? – Hogarth, Swift, Lear, Peter Cook etc, etc, etc.

Anna C

Actually it was Awkright's Water Frame and Hargreaves' Spinning Jenny. Watt, Awkright (and others) could be combined as single topic of Industrial Revolution.

I agree that the list should have 1832 Great Reform Act.

What about Crimean War and Florence Nightingale?

If you're going to have the 1998 Good Friday agreement then the 1916 Easter Uprising should also be included.

F. Difyno

The Chartists? The introduction of welfare state measures by the liberals before WW1?

British Drink culture 1729? Why that year especially?

Edward Morgan

The Agricultural Revolution. The huge increase in agricultural productivity was a key factor in the Industrial Revolution and major social change. Sticking with the theme of using individuals or events to illustrate topics you could focus on Jethro Tull and his seed drill or "Turnip" Townshend.

Fergus Pickering

The Declaration of Arbroath is of only local Scottish importance. I've never heard of the Red House. Who cares about the laws of football? The BBC. Don'tbe ridiculous. Monty Python and British Humour. You mean there wasn't any before?

Ted C

Black Death, Agricultural Revolution (Enclosue Act), 1715/1745, Great Reform Act 1832,Crimean War, Boer War, Falklands, Privatisation, Iraq

Anthony

"What about Crimean War and Florence Nightingale?"

I'm not sure about that. I'm not really convinced of the significance of the "Crimean" War studied in isolation and much of the standard popular narrative is flawed. I'd be horrified if people had never heard of it, but I don't think it's on the same level of importance as many of the things on the list.

That said, if it's competing against the Channel Tunnel...

Cogito Ergosum

ca 5000BC: melting of the ice after the Ice Age causes sea level to rise and the British Isles to become separated from the Continent. A valuable perspective on climate change.

1687 - Publication of Isaac Newton's Principia. This was his famous work on gravitation and the planets. A book that changed the ideas of non-scientists, as did Darwin 1859 which is in the list.

Chris Rose

No mention of the sailing of the Pilgrim Fathers and what followed on from that.

I would also add the nationalisation programme, especially of the Bank of England, and its (disastrous) consequences.

Puncheon

And what about the renaissance in 15th century Europe, and the increased interest in pagan philosophers, eg Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics. The whole history of human thought and ideas is ignored. But yes, end Government/centralisation in education by all means.

oldtimer

Agricultural revolution (enclosures, crop rotation, Jethro Tull etc) and the industrial revolution profoundly changed the face, wealth and society of Britain and deserve better representation. The revolutions in thought and action deserve equal billing with the dramatic events of years such as 1066, 1805, 18i5, 1940

Verity

The American Declaration of Independence and the tax riots against Britain. This was seismic.

EyeSee

Way way too much PC influence in the list to start with. There are certain things that would give greater cohesion for a working narrative. However, whilst not anti-Ghandi, why is that prominent in our history? Oh yes because our Empire oppressed millions of Indians. This thinking got us into the dire situation we are in today, for heavens sake. Empty headed left liberal victim whining. Hence the inclusion of the Good Friday Agreement, one of Tony Blair's more spectacular surrenders to terrorists. History is a special subject and gives a culture its sense of place. The corruption of our history teaching has been a terrible victory for the left liberal Britain haters who run our country.

Tom Willis

I'd include

-- Domesday Book 1086
-- Stockton & Darlington Railway 1825

As China celebrates its origination of gunpowder, paper money and printing, surely Britain should remember itself for the Industrial Revolution, and railways at the very least?

Verity

Eyesee, you are correct in spotting that surrender to Gandhi, who was a self-serving arsehole, was the progenitor of the Good Friday "Agreement".

The tragedy with Gandhi (for us) was, he had such a glamourous spokesman in Jawarlahal Nehru. He was good looking, articulate, looked glamourous in his pajamas and khurta and his neat little hat and he delivered one hell of a speech. "Freedom at Midnight!" And from then on Gandhi, his guiding star, was sanctified and, as you acutely note, he pointed the way for the Good Friday surrender via Tony Blair.

Dave B

" But what would Gove and his ilk do about the teaching of history? "

In his 'we will fight, Britain will win', conference speech Mr Cameron spoke of putting universities and employers in charge of exam standards. I believe this is the mechanism that would, in this case, drive change in the teaching of History.

(A Times article, A Banker's Solution to Grade Inflation, gives a thumbnail sketch of the benefits of employer's and universities having control of exam standards.)

Frank Pulley

On the positive side of history I cite myriad unrecorded and unsung acts of heroism by ordinary people that have underpinned the progress of this nation.

On the negative side, there is a litany of egregious commissions and omissions by a multitude of pusillanimous and/or treacherous politicians and powerful unelected power brokers leading to the undermining of our culture, traditions, heritage and sovereignty, culminating in the last ten years of so-called government, which has resulted in the sullying - nay - destruction of Britain's history for future generations. It is a crime against humanity to dishonour the achievements of the glorious departed. May the infamy of those responsible be punished by the unspeakable tortures of hell and may the worst be saved for hypocrisy of Gordon Brown.

Anglica

Couldn't have said it better, Mr. Pulley @12:07 a.m. God will get 'em, of course! I hope I live to see it.

Otherwise---well, everyone else's suggestions. And how about some attention to things like: Who the inhabitants were after Cogito's 'rising of the seas'; first farmers; Stone Circles; Roman Exodus from Britain; Development of Anglo-Saxon law, trade, and literacy; Viking & Irish invasions; William the Bastard's Harrying of the North; Henry II and Thomas Beckett; The Crusades (no point pretending they didn't happen just because 'aliens' think they shouldn't have); what the Angevins did to turn the Scots, Welsh, and English {+ Celts in all places} against each other; Edward II his favourite, his french wife, and the Welsh; the Hundred Years War; the Wars of the Roses; Henry VII, his wife, his mother, and his sons(!); the survival of English despite the french lot; the re-emergence of the vernacular and its Lit, and flowering of English Lit with printing and the Reformation; Eliz I and M Queen of Scots; Enclosure(s); Harvey on Circulation of the Blood; James I/VI and what he really did; the closing of the theatres; Milton; the Restoration; Captain Cook; Invasion by William of Orange; The Hanovers; George III; Newton; Faraday; Boyle; Davy; Alexander Fleming and Penicillin; WWI; WWII and Battle of Britain; Suez; EFTA; IRA; Falklands.....and so on to that final terrible day in 2008 when Gordo the Terrible Gave away what was left (and what Britain used to do to traitors)....

For me the Beatles are a symptom ('60s), not history; Britain did not join europe in 1973 - we joined a Common Market and nothing more; if they do football, why not cricket?

Oh, and how about the arrival of coffee and Coffee Houses?

Anglica

OH...

p.s.
Shakespeare only lived for a year? 1610? Now that takes genius...I mean, in the north, before Global Warming, and no electricity?

Chaucer did OK, too - Canterbury Tales in 1370 (if that's the right date). Especially without pc or printer: they had to 'drore' every letter.

And wasn't there some sort of Depression in the early 20th century?

And later: CND and protests like the Aldermaston March?

And how about running an interesting thread through it all - like the evolution of our parliamentary system and democracy? Leading, of course, to it's Laborious devolution......

And sorry for typo on Thomas Becket.

Augustus

Queen Boadicea (Boudica, queen of the Iceni tribe of East Anglia). Not just for her revolt against the Romans, but as a cultural symbol through the ages.