The main lesson of history is that we do not learn the lessons of history. Did (for example) anyone at the Pentagon heed the wisdom of Colonel T. E. Lawrence, soundly advising against the military occupation of Iraq? Of course not. That was way back, buddy: this is now. Experience teaches, time and again — and again.
The present volume accepts the pragmatic irrelevance of history, and celebrates Clio, a muse. It has historians owning up to the fact that history is good entertainment, with some figures from journalism and the entertainment industry affirming that historians indeed possess the extra-mural potential to fill airtime and column space. Simon Schama and Jeremy Isaacs offer particularly eloquent apologia for the sort of period dramatics that have developed on television, especially British television. But there are no dud contributions in the ensemble. Professor Ian Kershaw, who served as consultant to one of the most impressive displays of the genre, The Nazis: A Warning from History (produced by Lawrence Rees and shown on BBC 2 in 1997), voices some queasiness about divergent standards of accuracy between production companies and university departments.
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