A Bibliographical Commercial Break

"Thanks Mr Harris for all your history lectures. They're really good" (Anonymous review)


I have made no secret of the fact that part of the point of this blog has been to publicise my pieces that are for sale on Amazon Kindle. So this post will be nothing else; it is a list of all my Kindle pieces with a few words about each one. I fancy you may learn a fair bit of history if you just read this blog and don't buy anything – but I'll be pleased if you do buy some, of course.

When I started, my target readership was the most ambitious and enthusiastic AS or Higher (Scotland) pupils. That is to say 16+. They typically follow a course based on text-books that are ruthlessly exam-focused and incline to the “Worthy but dull” end of historical writing. A lot of this material – and a lot of the revision material available – is aimed at candidates who are hoping to pass, rather than those who plan to get good A grades and then go on to study history at a higher level. My “A grade history lectures” were intended to plug this gap.

Older pupils, studying for A-level or Advanced Higher, ought, as much as possible, to be using real history books, written for adults. It is by reading the best history that they learn to write the best history. Besides, the ability to work with long books is essential training for university. But – and it is a big but – many history books are far too long for most readers most of the time. It is said that when George III visited Edward Gibbon he exclaimed: “Scribble, scribble, scribble Mr Gibbon. Another damn great thick book!” My stuff at least is short. You can read it on the train to work. There are frequent references to longer and better books by great historians, for those who have the time to read them.

I call my pieces “Lectures” because, in my experience as a listener and as a talker, the lecture format allows great freedom to challenge, to cross reference, to entertain. I believe there are readers who find the word “Lecture” a turn off; they have experienced monotone droning accompanied by photocopied notes or, more recently, death by power-point. That is not what I do.

When the first set of Kindle “Lectures” came out I was flattered to find that various friends and relations who fit into the category of “general readers” viewed them very favourably. This led me to bear them in mind when I was writing some of the later pieces. I no longer concentrated on mainstream exam topics. Obviously, the more people read them the better I am pleased.

Then in 2014 I finished a rather different piece. It's a lot longer (40,000 words) and is about Edinburgh. It has been written as nine walks about the city and will show visitors all sorts of things. It is also good for Edinburgh people who have had to move away; it is a cheerful reminder of home. in fact even if you live in Edinburgh you will learn somethings from it, unless you are a real expert. It is not a work of reference; it doesn't have everything. It deals with the things I like - history and art and with a few references to Henry Cockburn, Robert Fergusson and Walter Scott. being much longer, it costs a bit more than the lectures, but is still much cheaper than any book I have seen on sale.

I often wrote a play for my junior pupils. I am gradually getting them all typed up here. They were supposed to be enjoyable - sometimes very funny - but they always had a deeper historical theme behind the jokes.

Anyhow, here's the list, roughly in chronological order.

Getting to know Edinburgh
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Getting-Know-Edinburgh-George-Harris-ebook/dp/B00PH9NW0E/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_1

In nine walks this book takes you to museums and galleries, up Calton Hill, along the Water of Leith, through the Old Town and the New Town and so on. Packed with history and commentary.

During the Edinburgh Festival 2015 the following tweet turned up: "Am fan of the book; have used on last 3 trips to Edinburgh, always new things to learn about"

The Place-names of Scotland: a first introduction

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Place-names-Scotland-Introduction-ebook/dp/B0097UGWRY/ref=pd_sim_kinc_15

This lecture makes no pretensions to scholarship, but it will tell the visitor to Scotland a good deal about the early history of the country. Towns on the East coast include Inverness (Gaelic), Aberdeen (Welsh), Pittenwheem (Pictish), Coldingham (Anglo-Saxon) and Berwick (Norse). Add the Normans to this (the original Robert de Brus came from Picardy) and you have a fine mix of genes, languages and cultures.

This is NOT, by the way a gazetteer of names with definitions. Do not be disappointed to find that it is not this. Whang any name into a search-engine to discover its meaning and origin.


The Curse of Donald Bane
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08BQ5RLQT/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=The+Curse+of+Donald+bane&qid=1592995372&sr=8-1

This was written as part of teaching a Primary 7 class about the Middle Ages. It is set in the reign of David I of Scotland. Although it has an exciting little story, of a boy caught up in massive social change, it is also a vehicle for information about the feudal system, Scottish power politics, Magnus Barelegs of Norway, monastic reform, trial by ordeal and the founding of the Royal Burgh of Edinburgh. I suppose the target readership is ages 9-12, but unless you are reasonably familiar with Scottish history it will contain new information for you. David I, son of Saint Margaret, was a very important king of Scotland who ought to be better known.

An Introduction to the Renaissance

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Introduction-Renaissance-A-grade-Lectures-ebook/dp/B00ANA24V0/ref=sr_1_9?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1374056222&sr=1-9&keywords=An+introduction+to+the+Renaissance

I can remember when I first became aware of the Renaissance. It was in 1960 and we were being shown round the Chateaux of the Loire by a French guide. I was only ten, but it was a formative experience. I have been looking at Renaissance paintings, sculpture and architecture ever since. I've read a fair amount about it too. This lecture tries to summarise the main points of the artistic revolution of the fifteenth century. It also – and this was harder – tries to explain the meaning of that elusive concept “Renaissance humanism”. This is a lecture to take with you on holiday in Italy.

I do not pretend to any original insights, but I do think the quotations from primary sources are particularly interesting. My text is based on numerous holidays in Tuscany, Umbria, London, Amsterdam, Venice and Rome. I am aware of four authors as particularly influential: E H Gombrich, Michael Baxandall, Giorgio Vasari and Desiderius Erasmus.

James IV: Scotland's Renaissance King
http://www.amazon.co.uk/James-IV-Scotlands-Renaissance-ebook/dp/B00EUAEVCO/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_2_5R7C
I've had this in mind for a while, but I was reminded of the need to get on and write it by a visit to the site of the Battle of Flodden. The fields below Branxton Edge, where the battle took place on September 9th 1513 have been very well laid out with paths and sign boards, and a visit is highly recommended. However, this lecture is mostly about James' reign before his disastrous last campaign. He was a contemporary of Henry VIII, Louis XII of France, Pope Julius II and Ferdinand of Aragon, amongst others. I would argue that his approach to kingship, and his achievements, mean that he should be listed with them as a Renaissance Prince. He is too little known. These 6,000 words will rapidly show you why he should be remembered, and also recommend further reading so that you can get to know him better.

The Protestant Reformation briefly explained

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Protestant-Reformation-explained-lectures-ebook/dp/B00C5KGNCM/ref=sr_1_5?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1374056113&sr=1-5&keywords=the+Protestant+Reformation

Those of us who were brought up going to church, and then spent a whole life singing in church music, can hardly help being interested in church history. Those of us who have ever witnessed an Orange March, or a Catholic cathedral in southern Europe, cannot help but be interested in what makes Christians so diverse. Besides, those historians who have no church backgrounds must struggle when they encounter religion as a major factor in all European history. With luck this lecture will get the main points clear. What did Luther and Calvin stand for? I also re-tell the story of Henry VIII’s break with Rome. It is all over the TV these days, so a clear summary can do no harm.

The "Glorious" Whig Revolution 1670-1720, explained by the Vicar of Bray
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Glorious-Whig-Revolution-1670-1720-ebook/dp/B00FI245V0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380624918&sr=8-1&keywords=The+glorious+whig

One of the questions in my English History A-level in 1968 was "What was the significance of 1688?". Whatever my answer was then, that date remains one of enormous significance in British history - as great as 1066. The old satirical song, "The Vicar of Bray" covers the momentous so-called "Glorious Revolution". The vicar tries to keep his parish despite the changes of political and religious orthodoxy as Charles II, James II, William III, Anne and George I took the throne. This lecture goes through the song verse by verse and explains the many issues involved.
Among other things here are explained the Divine Right of Kings, Whigs and Tories, High and Low church, the Hanoverian succession and much else. It was originally written in response to a lament from English Literature tutors that their students knew no Eighteenth Century history, so I hope it will help plug that gap. If you add in my Bonnie Dundee lecture and my Scottish Enlightenment lecture, that's a fair chunk of Eighteenth Century Britain covered. (This Vicar of Bray piece is definitely about England only).

Bonnie Dundee and the First Jacobite Rebellion

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jacobite-Rebellion-Lectures-Scottish-ebook/dp/B0097SO8N6/ref=pd_sim_kinc_1

Those of us who were at primary school in the 1950s learned lots of traditional songs in music lessons. “Bonnie Dundee” was one of them. Walter Scott based his rousing ditty on a real set of events and characters. What I do here is take the song verse by verse and explain the history that lies behind it. The fact that John Graham of Claverhouse had three nick-names – “Bonnie Dundee”, “Bluidy Clavers” and “Black John of the Battles” – surely makes it worth reading about him. The song – and the lecture – deals with one of the more remarkable episodes in Edinburgh’s colourful history.

The Jacobites
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jacobites-Lectures-Scottish-History-Book-ebook/dp/B01J62A458/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=WQ3Y1PZ49HS325FMARMB

This movement began as soon as James II and VII was thrown out in 1688. It lasted until his famous grandson, Bonnie Prince Charlie, was defeated at Culloden in 1746. With over fifty years, and five rebellions, it was a challenge to keep this as a short piece. Fortunately there are many excellent long books already, so I end with a select bibliography. I begin with a simple chronological table to help readers get the main facts sorted out. Then there is an essay on why people became Jacobites, and another on Jacobite warfare. The piece I am especially pleased with is set out as a chat in an Edinburgh pub as three friends chat about the risings, and cover a huge amount of history. There is also a suggested Jacobite tour, through the Highlands.

The Jacobite story has attracted so many myths over the years that many people who think they know the history still have a lot to get straight. This short e-book (18,000 words) will help you put the heroes and villains and battles in context.

An Introduction to the Scottish Enlightenment

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Introduction-Scottish-Enlightenment-Lectures-ebook/dp/B0097ROZ0S/ref=pd_sim_kinc_11

This lecture began life as an evening talk to a bunch of Scottish teachers, few of whom were historians. So it has, I hope, a general appeal. The Scottish Enlightenment was phenomenal – and was recognised during the eighteenth century as something remarkable. How could such a small country, on the fringes of Europe, suddenly produce a generation of world-changing thinkers, writers and scientists? It is a massive and complex subject, but this lecture will start to help you get a grip of it.

Cockburn's Edinburgh
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cockburns-Edinburgh-Plays-History-Teacher-ebook/dp/B018ODW7QY/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_6?ie=UTF8&refRID=1ZBRZ0QH2255TPPN1GGE

I discovered Henry Cockburn's wonderful book "Memorials of My Own Time" when I first moved to Edinburgh. I wrote this play so as to make his Edinburgh readily accessible to non-historians. It is packed with scenes of life in the city during the French Revolution and the Regency. These include: a duel; the funding of "The Edinburgh Review"; a dinner party; the Great Fire of Edinburgh; the Edinburgh Fencibles on parade; the case of Burke and Hare; the City Guard. wherever possible I used Cockburn's own words as he chats to his friend Francis Jeffrey. It is as full of history as an egg is of meat and, thanks to Cockburn's style, full of wit and insight. 

The Congress of Vienna Reassessed

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Congress-Reassessed-A-grade-Lectures-ebook/dp/B009V3805E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1374056367&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Congress+of+Vienna+Reassessed

During the first three decades of my career I taught this topic very often, and it seemed to me that most text books dealt very poorly with it. Too often it was in a book about the nineteenth century, and so was related to liberalism, nationalism, Napoleon III, 1848 and so on. Whereas the men who made the settlement had hardly heard of any of this. They were eighteenth century statesmen, men of the Enlightenment, who sought to create a rational, stable Europe. They certainly did not wish (as one often reads) to put the clock back to 1789. Nor did they.

As well as dealing with the sorts of issues that come up in exams I also try to set this settlement in the long context of European settlements, from the death of Charlemagne to 1945.

Slavery and the Causes of the American Civil War

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Slavery-American-A-grade-Lectures-ebook/dp/B009YVL73K/ref=pd_sim_kinc_2

This piece is based on two evening class lectures I gave in support of a course on American literature. I was alarmed to find that the class included a High Court Judge and two highly educated Americans. They were kind enough to find what I had to say interesting, so I hope you will too. I think of this as a useful introduction for people who have little previous knowledge and who will then (maybe) go on to read more and more for themselves about these vast areas of study.

The Unification of Italy

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unification-A-Grade-History-Lectures-ebook/dp/B007ZUDTN8/ref=pd_sim_kinc_4

My career began with a lucky break. I was, aged 23, given the top O-level set. When we reached the Unification of Italy I was able to say “On this topic your text book is completely wrong. Italian historiography has moved on since it was written” (This was in the days when Denis Mack Smith was writing). This went down very well with this hard-working, ambitious bunch and I achieved a not-wholly deserved reputation for scholarship.

Most of my pieces are analytical, but this one follows the narrative and, I hope, makes sense of it; and gets Garibaldi, Cavour, Victor Emmanuel and co correctly placed within the story.

Bismarck and the Making of the German Empire

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bismarck-A-Grade-History-Lectures-ebook/dp/B007Z586XG/ref=pd_sim_kinc_6

One Amazon reviewer called my assessment of Bismarck “trite”. All I will reply is that my main sources have been Golo Mann, Fritz Stern and David Blackbourn. (Not to mention dozens of others over the years). The key to my assessment is in the title: not “The Unification of Germany” but “The Making of the German Empire”. Bismarck did not want to unify Germany, and did not (he left out Austria altogether). He was a diplomat of genius, but not even he could manipulate all events. His trick was to pretend that what happened was what he had planned all along.

This is a long and dense lecture, but that is the nature of the topic.

The Development of Democracy in Britain

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Development-Democracy-Britain-ebook/dp/B007Z5PU2G/ref=pd_sim_kinc_5

There is a very readable book by Robert Rhodes James called “the British Revolution”, dealing with the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. And it is remarkable that this revolution took place so peacefully (with due acknowledgement to serious violence over the issue of Irish independence). This piece is made of three lectures. Numbers two and three deal with the various developments – mostly Acts of Parliament – and explain what they signified and why they were passed. Part one is an analysis of the meaning of “Democracy” that has found favour with teachers of Citizenship and of Politics.

The Baker Street Irregulars
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Baker-Street-Irregulars-History-Teacher-ebook/dp/B0861MNNL2/ref=pd_rhf_dp_p_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=2KQDV2VQ945GE988YYC4
When I was writing plays for my pupils I always had in mind a deeper theme. Even though they were supposed to be entertaining I also wanted them to be educational. I wanted to get some thoughts going about poverty, and a Sherlock Holmes story seemed ideal. London 1892. Since many of the original cast were superb singers I set it in a music hall - copying from "Cabaret" the idea of having the plot and the stage show interacting. With bombs, nihilism, a love story and Professor Moriarty it is good fun. But the poor are always with you.

Votes for Women!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Votes-A-Grade-History-Lectures-ebook/dp/B007Y617I2/ref=pd_sim_kinc_2

If I had to pick a favourite lecture it might be this one. It separates the social and cultural question of why women got the vote during the early twentieth century from the political question of why they got it precisely when and why they did. Both strike me as fascinating. My argument is that the militant suffragettes were less significant than mythology has made them. Many remarkable women – Josephine Butler, Elizabeth Garrett, Beatrix Potter among others – take their place in the analysis.

The Great Liberal Social Reforms 1906-1914

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Liberal-Social-Reforms-ebook/dp/B007ZI4CU4/ref=pd_sim_kinc_13

A century ago a government began to deal seriously with the problems of poverty and began to spend tax-payers money as part of the solution. This was a substantial revolution in government and we live, of course, with the consequences today. This lecture covers all the reforms, considers why they were passed and also why they were like they were, with considerations of the pressure of political realities on the decision-makers.

The Causes and the Course of the First World War

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Causes-A-Grade-History-Lectures-ebook/dp/B007ZN5J9C/ref=pd_sim_kinc_2

This got such a friendly Amazon review from W Goetsch of Pittsburgh PA that I shall quote it in full:

After reading book after book on the lead up to WWI, always something of a mystery to me, it is here in this elegant and concise lecture that I became satisfied that now I had the matter in hand. It focused like a laser on the underlying issues which otherwise I had not been able to extract for myself from the plethora of detail that I had read. The British are clearly better with language, and nuance, than we Americans.

More generally, I now see a place for what might be called a new genre: brief essays not previously available to a general public, and priced appropriately. The trouble with many recent book length offerings today--not all--is that they have a nugget of an interesting take on some interesting subject, but the author feels compelled to flesh them out to book length with additional matter, presumably to construct a salable "book". I rather like the nugget part straight, like a shot of whiskey, quite unencumbered with the chaff. This saves everyone time. Now we can buy what amounts to an article in a magazine, the tune in an album. I think this notion will take off.

I only wish it had included the bibliography to the lecture. That would have been useful to Amazon as well.

I did include more “further reading” in later lectures. As far as the First World War is concerned, I have read so much over 40 years that it would be hard to single out a small number of books that have influenced my thinking.

Scotland and the Causes of the Causes of the First World War
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scotland-Causes-Lectures-Scottish-History-ebook/dp/B0137DAR1I/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=19DBZVM3XY5CGKXSA8FT

For the centenary year, 2014, I was asked to give this talk three times. The listeners were all very interested and knowledgeable adults, so I was on my mettle. I tackled the controversy about the causes of the War that was exercising historians, journalists and politicians by relating it to the changes and developments in my own thinking. For the Scottish dimension I made use of contemporary newspapers. These primary sources were, as always, most revealing and interesting.

Socialism and the Early Years of the Labour Party

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Socialism-British-A-Grade-Lectures-ebook/dp/B007ZFRL5K/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1374056999&sr=1-1&keywords=Socialism+and+the+early

This is another two-lecture piece. Part One tries to explain Socialism (before 1914), what it meant and what some of the main varieties were. I like to think it is clear and accurate though, being brief, it does not go into all the subtleties and complex arguments of Jaures, Bernstein, Lenin, Macdonald, Beatrice Webb and co. Part Two tries to explain the paradox of the British Labour Party in its early years – the way in which it simultaneously did well and yet did not do all that well.

 The Russian Revolution of 1917

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Russian-Revolution-A-Grade-Lectures-ebook/dp/B007Y8CCQQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374055450&sr=8-1&keywords=a+grade+history+lectures

Perhaps this should be called “The Russian Revolutions”, for February and October are distinct. Here are two lectures, one on why the tsar fell and the other on why the Bolsheviks triumphed. In the first one I avoid talking about causes in a general sort of a way, but try to relate them to precisely what happened, so that it is possible to form a judgement as to which causes were more important. Lists of causes in general are the enemy of precise historical thinking.

Hitler’s Rise to Power

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hitlers-Grade-History-Lectures-ebook/dp/B007Y6LF5M/ref=pd_sim_kinc_1

Here is how this one begins:

The question “Why did Hitler come to power in Germany?” sounds like a reasonable one. But it gives a wrong impression from the start. The question should be: “How on earth did a gang of obsessives, losers and misfits manage to get supreme power in one of the most advanced and civilised democracies in the world?”

There are two parts to my explanation. One is to explain why a good many Germans (never a majority) voted Nazi in the crucial elections of 1930-1932. The other is to show how, step by step, the Nazis converted electoral success into absolute power.

The Causes of the Second World War and Appeasement

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Appeasement-A-Grade-History-Lectures-ebook/dp/B007Y8OBVK/ref=pd_sim_kinc_1

Poor Neville Chamberlain utterly failed to prevent the Second World War. But does that mean that he and his associates were “Guilty Men” or merely unlucky? The section on Appeasement is succinct and clear.

The section on the causes of the Second World War in general emphasises that we are dealing with six different wars that all got mixed up together. Their causes are best considered separately or muddle will undoubtedly ensue.

Why did the Allies Win the Second World War

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Allies-A-Grade-History-Lectures-ebook/dp/B007ZU2E34/ref=pd_sim_kinc_3

I reckon I've been studying the Second World War for longer than any other topic (since 1955 at least). This is my attempt to make some sense of what happened, in brief. There are numerous longer and better books available – see any bookshop – but you can read my piece in less than an hour. It does owe a good deal to Richard Overy’s “Why the Allies Won”.

The Cold War

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cold-A-Grade-History-Lectures-ebook/dp/B007ZF9X4W/ref=pd_sim_kinc_5

I found it strange, towards the end of my career, to be a primary source in my own lessons. (Did you sing carols to Hungarian refugees in 1956?). It was most stimulating to be forced, by exam options, to do some serious reading on the subject. As with all these lectures, I am pretty sure this would be a good introduction for an interested adult and good revision for a sixth-former.

On the stretching of brighter history pupils

The education twitter-sphere has been all a-buzz today with stuff about helping (or failing) bright pupils. I am not at all qualified to contribute directly to the debate; I can only recount my own experiences, and anecdotal evidence is not very valuable in such a case. Because of my work as an examiner I meet history teachers from scores of other schools every summer, and I do not think my approaches were in any way unusual. Yes, I taught at an independent school, so it was selective in terms of ability to pay fees. It was not very selective in terms of ability; plenty of our pupils did well to get C passes at GCSE with a couple of Bs thrown in.

However, I think I do have some credentials when it comes to helping bright history pupils make good use of their time in school. I do not know if there is a good way of measuring this, and I have no idea whether my department did as well or better than equivalent departments in Finland or in Shanghai. But we did have a fair number of former pupils who went on to get first class degrees at university. (Yes, that includes Oxford and Cambridge, if any one cares) Some of them have even become history teachers. Also I can affirm that helping the best pupils was something about which I cared deeply and to which I gave a fair amount of thought. My methods evolved and adapted over a longish career, but here are a few things that seemed to work for many pupils most of the time. They didn't work for a few pupils. One can always aspire to do better.

We laid great emphasis on free reading, both quantity and quality. I could buy dozens of books in Edinburgh's charity shops (a bit of luck with location, to be sure) for the price of a couple of new volumes, and our departmental library ran to hundreds. The excellent teacher who helped train me when I was on teaching practice (at University College School, Hampstead) refused to use text books at all with his sixth formers. They had to use proper history books written for adults. I tried, up to a point, to follow his advice, though I did find less able pupils needed the text-book crutch. But in general the principle is sound. For senior history pupils, text books specially written for school exams are a gateway to mediocrity, however “good” they are. It is possible to get very good marks indeed (super-As) at AS (England and Wales) and at Higher (Scotland) using such books, but they do little or nothing to encourage critical thinking, widen horizons, develop sophistication and so on – let alone prepare pupils for university.

This emphasis on free reading started with the juniors (and we had three years before exam-pressure kicked in). One of the things of which I was quietly proud was the History Reading Book Scheme. In theory every S1 and S2 pupil had a History Reading Book. I issued lists based on the school library, and there were general criteria for choosing a book not on the lists (“Ask me if it is OK”). The book had to be brought to every lesson, and it might be set for prep, read quietly for ten minutes at the start of a lesson, or, by fast writers, once a piece of written work had been finished. It saved hours of work setting up cover lessons when I was away on examining duties too. Once in the year there would be a mega-essay based on the reading book. I would set a specific title based on the book of their choice. This scheme was applied to all pupils, not just the brightest, but the brightest chose books beyond their years and used the essay to produce very remarkable pieces of work for twelve-year-olds.

As far as A2 work is concerned serious reading of adult history was taken for granted. Not everyone achieved the standards of the girl who read “Anna Karenina” in the summer holidays before we started Russian history, or the boy who read “The Kings Depart” over one weekend. But the encouragement and advice was available to all. If possible at some point in the course we found a fortnight to do a book review related to their A2 synoptic paper. They would choose a book and I could steer the brightest towards the more challenging works. During my very last year of teaching the OCR introduced a piece of coursework, Historical Investigations, that required the evaluation of several modern historians. I happened to have a very good class that year, and they rose to incredible heights. I regard this coursework, if properly done, as the most intellectually challenging thing I saw in my career.

At this point I am going to chuck in an advert. One of the things about my teaching – a weakness, some would think – was that I always liked to pitch everything just above the expected level for all classes. (I may say I got on pretty well with the Support for Learning Department and their charges. But that is the subject for another blog. Suffice it to say that the less able pupils don't like boring lessons either.)

(By the way I'm not at all happy with these concepts “brightest” and “less able”. That's for another blog too. Undeniably some pupils were more receptive, and more successful, at the sorts of things we tried to do in history courses.)

Back to the advert. When I retired my head was bursting with revision lessons I had given to my AS and Higher pupils and I wrote them down at high speed. They are not for the faint-hearted and some might find them pitched too high. One friend of mine who said he liked them is a Professor of Medical Ethics – a bit beyond AS level. Another friend said he gave them to the young teachers in his department. The point is that I tried, at revision time, to stimulate and stretch, not merely recapitulate. Here's the link to them: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_15?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=a%20grade%20history%20lectures&sprefix=A+grade+history%2Caps%2C512 They cost about £1.00 which means you can get three for the price of a pint, so I don't feel I am exploiting the panic of nervous exam candidates.

Now here is another thing we did that helped stretch all our pupils – especially the ablest. As soon as I took over the department I got permission from my Head to do away with sets, marks, grades and orders in junior classes. I am delighted to say that every single member of the department I worked with – ten or a dozen teachers over 25 years - found that this worked. In the bad old days of marks a child with a better mark than his peers heeded no further advice; and as for the much praised competition to come top – well, it was like the Premier League. Most pupils knew they couldn't come top so did not bother to try. As for the bottom end, they lived in a world of perpetual low self esteem. But when all work was marked with a meaningful comment (ideally praise + constructive advice) the weakest pupils always received encouragement and the best work, the subject of this blog, was always followed with some suggestions for “next steps”.

Over a long career I tried all sorts of extra-curricular history. Youth Hostel weekends looking at stately homes and castles bring back happy memories. One year all our successful Oxbridge candidates were in my “History on Film” after-school activity. And so on. I may say that none of this was exceptional in our school and nor, as I know from chatting to scores of fellow professionals, is it unusual at all. It is what teachers do, and it stretches and challenges. Everything can be done well or badly, of course, even school trips. What preparation is there, what follow up? What level of conversations take place on the trip itself? Personally I never tried to promote them by offering fun-time apart from the history. The history was the fun (though a lot of extra stuff did happen; I still treasure my Monopoly victory in Falkland YH. And the game of hide-and-seek in Norham Castle.)

I called A-level text-books a gateway to mediocrity. I fancy the same might be true of league tables, as the urgent need to get marks gets in the way of excellence. I am not sure about this, because I was very fortunate to work under a series of fine Heads who put the needs of individual pupils above the pressures of statistics.

What about the two GCSE years? Well, here we allowed our best pupils to aim as high as they could reach by using the GCSE devised by the Schools History Project. The two examined papers were a Study in Depth and a Study in Breadth. For the “depth” we did Germany 1918-1945 (which I do think all European pupils should do once at some point). This was fairly old-fashioned knowledge and understanding. For the “breadth” we did “Crime and Punishment from the Romans to the Present Day”. This was not just juries, sheriffs, police, witch-trials, transportation and so on but involved a great deal of social, cultural and political history. There was, I repeat, no limit to the conceptual levels an able pupil could reach in discussion and in the written answers. The challenges of evaluating sources and of making connections across the centuries were far more intellectually demanding than any memorisation of narrative.

But the glory of the course was the coursework. I had to set up two pieces, moderated by the exam board. One had to be using a range of primary sources including field work to write an essay. What I set up (given the location of our school) was “Was the Edinburgh New Town really as good as it is commonly described?” (and a few glowing descriptions were provided.) The pupils did five tours, made notes and drawings, studied contemporary documents and modern historians. Most of the finished essays were beautifully word-processed and illustrated – but the marks were all for the words on the page. One successful applicant for Classics at Oxford later put in his UCAS form: “I became interested in the civilisations of Greece and Rome while doing my GCSE coursework on the New Town of Edinburgh.”

The other piece of coursework involved showing how the past affected the present. We set up a course that ended with the following essay: “Show how the causes of the Chechen War are rooted deep in Russian history”. The need to use web-sites (many of which, on that particular topic were crazily biased), to grapple with wholly unfamiliar geography, to encounter new concepts and new themes: the challenge was vast – though we provided materials to prevent it becoming overwhelming. Candidates encountered Peter the Great, Solzhenitsyn, Stalin, Tolstoy and Yeltsin. The SHP/OCR rules imposed no word limits and, even though we made it clear mere summary narrative would gain little credit, the best candidates often produced over a thousand words of well-informed and thoughtful analysis.

It is probably true that some history departments, when faced with new examination arrangements, think “How can we get the most marks for our pupils?”. But the right response is “How can we use these new arrangements to improve the education we offer?” Which brings me to my final suggestion as a way of stretching the brightest. When new appointments of staff are being made, always go for candidates who care deeply about history, who think history really matters and appreciate that all history lessons can be interesting, challenging and worthwhile. History ought to be a life-enhancing subject in schools.

What is the point of studying history?

 

One of the pleasures (no; I really mean it) of running a history department was that from time to time student teachers would arrive on “placement.” A few of them, especially in the first term of the course, had to learn almost everything – even the importance of punctuality and of speaking audibly. Most of them were really good from the word go.

However, one thing that I found alarming in recent years was the fact that their course did not include any philosophy of education, nor any philosophy of history. My own training, at the Institute of Education, London, was weak on class-room management (virtually non-existent as a matter of fact). It was weak on psychology, too. At the first seminar our tutor said “I’m really a sociologist”, and for the third and subsequent sessions he never turned up. Still, it was a long time ago, and we hope it isn’t true (as I used to tell junior pupils about the nastier events of the Middle Ages).

But our course was very strong indeed on philosophy. One of my three long coursework essays was on the theory of education in Plato’s “Republic”; and I am sure more hours were spent on philosophy than on anything else. The practical stuff one picked up (or failed to pick up) on placements in schools. I wish we had done more psychology, but the philosophy stood me in good stead through my career and, I think, became increasingly valuable as time passed.

In particular the philosophy gave me confidence that what I was doing was worth while. Some subjects have an obvious practical value that can sustain the weary teacher’s morale during the bad times. The value of History as a subject, however, is not immediately obvious (and some educators, parents and pupils still do not acknowledge it). Some of those student teachers who joined my department looked blank when I asked them what was the point of teaching history, and I can’t help wondering whether they will be able to sustain a career to the end, or will they end up disillusioned and emotionally withered, like Crocker Harris in “The Browning Version”.

My own ideas on the whole grew and were refined during my career, so that I could argue with conviction when rivals wanted to steal bits of my timetabled time and explain ( sometimes possibly a bit too forcefully) to head teachers that merely persuading our pupils to learn more facts off a longer list would not improve the department. I can also look back on forty years and think that not all of the time was wasted.

Our youngest pupils were Primary 7 – ten or eleven. With them, on the very first day, I would say two things. The first was “In this room we aim to improve three things: reading, writing and thinking. Does anyone want to argue that those are not worth coming to school to do? We shall do all sorts of things – some of them you might even enjoy – but at any time you can challenge me and I’ll be able to tell you whether we are developing reading, writing, thinking or maybe more than one of those things at once.” I never had any more complaints of the “What’s the point of doing this” sort.

The second thing I would say was “Now, who are the good games players? Anyone play a musical instrument?” (There were always some). “Now, tell the rest of us, how do you get better at goal kicking/playing the flute/skate-boarding?” Someone would always say “Practice.” “Exactly,” I would reply. "So we shall do lots of practice at reading, writing and thinking and I can promise you that by the end of the year you will be a bit better at all three.”

Oddly enough, I was speaking the absolute truth to these children. “Thinking”, of course, included memory work, problem solving, planning, critical thinking, historical imagination and so on.

Meanwhile, some time in the early 1990s, our subject was under fire Some educators wanted it to go the way of Latin – a niche for eccentrics – while “Citizenship” or “Social Science” or “Humanities” became the norm. At the moment in Scotland we seem to have weathered that storm. I am told that History is currently the third most popular subject at Higher (16+) level, after English and Maths. But the crisis led me to get my ideas about the value of the subject down on one side of paper, in a form that could be handed to school management, school governors, parents, prospective pupils, student teachers and anyone else who cast doubts on our work. I still have a copy of it, so here it is. I hope fellow professionals agree, and the rest of you learn a bit about what we are trying to do.

THE VALUE OF OUR HISTORY COURSE

Interest and Entertainment: In History we meet characters more extraordinary and varied than Shakespeare dared to invent, and tales of wonder and heroism that neither Hans Anderson nor J.K.Rowling could better. There is romance, adventure, intrigue and beauty. There are issues as subtle and complex as any that are dreamed of in our philosophy and devices beyond the wit of Heath Robinson. We deal with town and country, home and abroad, local and national, the spiritual and the material.

Useful skills:

-         The efficient use of libraries, indexes, catalogues and computers

-         The ability to use the Internet for research

-         Training in evaluation and selective judgement

-         The ability to synthesise many books and sources into one coherent account

-         The ability to present results clearly in prose and in graphic form, using a computer where appropriate

-         The ability to construct a logical argument and to solve a problem with detailed evaluation

Scepticism: The world is full of people who want us to believe what they say. Politicians, journalists and advertisers are obvious examples. In general we should be cautious of all those in authority, of the rich and the powerful – and, of course, of historians themselves. In order to be free in the modern world one must keep exercising ones mind in freedom, testing the pronouncements and the judgments of others. History gives training in the scepticism needed to remain free in the modern world.

Development as an individual: Theodore Zeldin once wrote that “history is autobiography”. In other words, as one learns about other people one learns about oneself. As we study History we learn about the human race, we learn what it means to be a human being, we learn what our place is as human beings in the scale of human history, we learn what human beings are capable of. We also learn to put ourselves – twenty-first century Edinburgh prosperous middle classes – in perspective. We realise that there have been intelligent, honest and good people in other ages who have not shared our prejudices, our attitudes, our ideas. So History teaches tolerance, flexibility, openness and awareness. To study History is to become a more complete human being.

Suffragettes and Suffragists

The Suffragettes are all over the media at the moment, thanks to some very significant anniversaries. This blog-post is going to argue that the Suffragettes were a lot less significant than they are cracked up to be, so, in an effort to divert abusive criticism, I had better make two things clear from the start. In the first place I have tremendous admiration for the courage and determination of those who carried out militant actions. In the second place I am a whole-hearted supporter of the rights of women then and now.

My main point is that the strategy and tactics of the militants were wrong-headed and probably counter-productive. Because of the way things panned out, with the First World War moving all the goal posts everywhere, it is quite likely that women in Britain would in any case have gained the vote in parliamentary elections when they did. But history is not about what might have happened, but about what did happen, and a good case can be made for arguing that the Suffragette militancy delayed, rather than speeded-up, the granting of the vote.

Far too few history teachers, and almost no members of the general public, seem to be aware that the House of Commons voted in favour of votes for women by an overwhelming majority in 1911. It is simply untrue that women failed to get the vote during the decade before the First World War “because men thought they were unfit for politics.” That point may be true, more or less, for the late nineteenth century, but by the early twentieth century things had changed. All sorts of male-dominated organisations (the Labour Party and the Church of Scotland for example) were in favour of votes for women. Women already had the vote in local elections and, as I have already said, the great majority of MPs were in favour. The arguments had been won.

The arguments had been won partly as the result of a whole host of social and cultural changes involving education, marriage laws, career opportunities and so on. They had also been won by the efforts of a number of dedicated and energetic women who had campaigned and argued for four decades on a whole range of women’s rights – Josephine Butler, Elsie Inglis, Elizabeth Garrett and others. Their leader, as far as the voting question was concerned, was Millicent Fawcett, and her organisation is usually referred to as the Suffragists. This label is a convenient way of distinguishing the “rational argument” group from Mrs Pankhurst’s avowedly militant organisation.

Given that the arguments in favour of votes for women had been won, there were four main obstacles to a change in the law. One was Queen Victoria, who disapproved of the whole idea. Well, she had been removed by death. Another very serious one was political disagreement about exactly which women should get the vote and on what terms. This was a time, remember, when not all adult men yet had the vote. (This obstacle will be easily understood if you have followed the arguments about reform of the House of Lords in our own day. Because the reformers are divided about the nature of the reform, the minority of anti-reformers are able to block all proposals.) A third obstacle, since we have just mentioned them, was the House of Lords. The issue was not tested by a vote, but it seemed highly likely that the Upper House, with its high proportion of crusty old dinosaurs, would vote against. And finally, by sheer bad luck, the Prime Minister, Asquith, was against votes for women. Prime Ministers can be overwhelmed by democratic or party pressure, but they are enormously powerful when it comes to setting agendas, finding parliamentary time and prioritising business. After the 1911 vote Asquith was able to put in place all sorts of delaying tactics.

This prevarication was what provoked the militant Suffragette outrages; the anger is entirely understandable. But as a tactic it was totally misguided. Mrs Fawcett was in despair. For a pressure group to be successful it must identify, and persuade, the key figures in the decision-making process (as the Suffragists had been doing for a long time). Lloyd George (a supporter) wrote to Mrs Fawcett that he feared the outrages would make political victory impossible, and so it proved. We expect modern governments to refuse to pay ransoms, or give way to terrorism. This line of argument reinforced Asquith’s position. One influential member of his cabinet was the famously obstinate Winston Churchill. He was hardly likely to support votes for women after an axe had been thrown at him.

In fact the War came along and changed everything. Asquith publicly admitted that his views had changed. So did other leading opponents. Lloyd George became Prime Minister. In the atmosphere of national unity in the face of danger, and in the surge of respect for the men who had volunteered and for the women who had given themselves fearlessly to war work, the passing of a new Reform Act raised no party-political questions. The absurd compromise of offering the vote to women over thirty provided they were rate-payers or the wives of rate-payers was enough to satisfy the remaining dinosaurs in the Lords. Mrs Fawcett was consulted by the Speaker’s Committee that drew up the Bill. It became law with very little fuss.

In fairness to the Suffragettes, it seems to me that their militancy may have had a favourable effect on the decision-making process at two points. One was Mrs Pankhurst’s 1914 declaration that she would put all the resources of her movement behind the war effort. The outrages had caused so much publicity that this was a moving gesture. The other, just possibly, was that the politicians in 1916, discussing the issue, may have thought “We can do without another wave of Suffragette militancy in the middle of this war. We had better include women in our Bill to give the vote to all fighting men.” But I have no direct evidence of this being said or thought.

If you want to follow up this blog with some more reading, I particularly recommend the work of Martin Pugh. His “Votes For Women In Britain, 1867 1928 2nd Ed (New Appreciations in History)”, for example, is excellent. If you would like something shorter, there is a piece by me available on Kindle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Votes-A-Grade-History-Lectures-ebook/dp/B007Y617I2/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1370082160&sr=1-3&keywords=Votes+for+women

I will, as a footnote, admit to some personal bias on this issue. My copy of “Millicent Garrett Fawcett” by Ray Strachey, was given by my mother to her mother as an Easter present in 1945. My mother was a London University lecturer in Chemistry before the Second War began, and I was very much brought up in the “rational argument” tradition of political persuasion. Also my study of history has shown me the extreme importance of the decision-making process – all too often neglected. 

Some thoughts on the writing of history books

For the last few months it has amused me to create a list of a hundred good history books and use twitter to let others know about them. (The hashtag is #100ghb). They are not arranged in any order of merit, though the very first (“The Defeat of the Spanish Armada” by Garrett Mattingly”) and the hundredth (“Memorials of his Own Time” by Henry Cockburn) are particular favourites of mine. I have not named the list “great” history books; it is enough to be merely “good”. Incidentally, no author occurs twice, so hundreds of what I regard as good history books are lurking just off-tweet.

The list is very much a matter of personal choice. The books are all ones that have in some way moved me, ones that I have read for enjoyment and improvement. If I ever turn the list into a book, with a thousand words or so about each one, it will be as much autobiography as bibliography. The first book on the list that I ever read was “People in History” by R J Unstead; I knew this off by heart, more or less, by the time I was ten. The most recent I read was “Voices of Morebath” by Eamon Duffy, recommended by my daughter, who is herself a historian.

When I was at school, and during the first decades of my teaching career, admission to Cambridge and to Oxford depended on performance in essay papers. These included not only a General Paper but also General Historical Questions. (In those primitive pre-GCSE days this was where I first discovered the problems of evaluating sources.) One question to a class of aspirants that usually provoked an interesting discussion was “What makes a good history book?” Sixth-formers would come up with a variety of answers, all connected to readability. I would let the argument run for a while before saying: “Surely the worth of a history book ought to be measured by the amount of new things about the past – factual information and interpretations – that it tells us.”

However, as far as readers are concerned, and that includes me, the sixth-formers were right. A book cannot be good unless it is good as a book as well as good as a piece of scholarship. The Cambridge don who complained to me that she did not approve of the books of Orlando Figes because they were “too popular” was talking rubbish. Those of us with history degrees have all spent weary afternoons dozing between the book-stacks in faculty libraries, trudging through volumes that will never be seen on the shelves of any shop and whose retail price is mind-bogglingly high because no one except faculty libraries will ever buy them. These are not good history books.

Occasionally I get asked to review books. Some of the ones that arrive are clearly PhD theses that have been turned into books with too little editorial scrutiny. One of these, that contained a lot of interesting history and that in some ways I enjoyed, included the following magnificent passage:

“Similarly John MacLean, in the presbytery of Kintyre, second son of John MacLean of Greshpol in Coll, admitted as parson of Kilmorie in Arran some time before 1688, was ousted shortly afterwards. He attracted influential patronage during his subsequent career in Ireland; minister at Coleraine and Antrim, he was chaplain to Lord Massereene and prebendary of Rosharkin. Married first to a daughter of Lachlan McNeill of Losset, by whom he had several daughters, two sons of his second marriage to a daughter of James Cubbage also carved out ministerial careers for themselves in Ireland: John became minister of Clogher in Ireland and James minister of Rochray. His middle son, Clotworthy, practised medicine in Belfast.”

This is not the way to write a good history book.

Another common fault is to write more than the data will warrant, and find verbal ways of papering over the cracks. I have in front of me a life of Eleanor of Aquitaine It is full of interesting things. But there is a 28-page chapter on Eleanor’s youth that includes the sentence: “Eleanor’s life as a child growing up in the ducal household is almost completely undocumented.”  Some medieval historians solve their problems with evidence better than others; however, there is a limit to the number of times the words “no doubt”, “possibly”, “she would have” and “perhaps” can be used without the reader’s mind drifting away.

Or, to take another case, I possess a useful book on the reign of Charles II. There is a section on economic development in which are found a couple of pages where vaguely quantitative words are freely used. “Advances”, “development”, “expansion”, “additional”, "expensive”, “spreading”, “expanding”, “increases”, “buoyant”, “scale”, “widespread”, “more”, “sheer quantities”, “growing”. As you may have guessed, there is not a statistic to be seen. What a contrast is my #100ghb Number 19, “Europe Transformed” by Norman Stone. I used to use it with classes to indicate the importance of “telling detail”. Open it at random (I would challenge pupils to choose page numbers) and discover a general point immediately supported by a fascinating snippet of statistical detail. Try it for yourself.

An outstanding discussion of the problems of writing history comes in the first section of my #100ghb Number 8, “The Face of Battle” by John Keegan. Here he analyses in depth and with many examples quoted, the difficulties of writing military history, in particular of describing in words what actually goes on when armed men set about killing each other. Traditionally historians have resorted to metaphors, with waves of men sweeping irresistibly, or advances getting bogged down. Keegan uses the rest of the book to do better, with analyses of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme. If you have never read it, do so.

There is, undoubtedly, a serious problem for historians here. If their books are going to be good books they have to conform to the disciplines of a book. They need beginnings and middles and ends, division into chapters, enlivening character sketches, effective changes of pace and a sense of drive or flow through the pages. This tends to result in the history being distorted, perhaps subconsciously, in order to make a book; where this is not done the book may be dull and an effort to read. Writing good history is not easy, and we can be grateful that there are enough good history books out there to last a lifetime. (I am acutely aware that my list has far too little Ancient, Medieval, American, Asian and African history and hardly any Latin American history at all. Hundreds of good books still to read.)

Historians who are making television programmes (and there are lots of really good ones) face similar problems, enormously magnified. The disciplines and conventions of the medium have to be satisfied first. Scholarship comes second.

Some of my sixth-form pupils would suggest “nice pictures” as important in a good history book. They may have thought they were being flippant, but illustrations can be chosen well or badly, and good ones can improve a book greatly. Monochrome photographs of politicians do not usually add much; cartoons say much more. Pictures which relate closely to the text, which add to the text, or pairs of pictures where the contrast is instructive really are worth the thousand words of the cliché. Winston Churchill’s books are particularly strong on maps – vital for military history – and in some cases they are on fold-out pages so that you can look at the map as you read on. This sort of thing makes a book better. Many of my #100ghb have excellent illustrations.

A few years ago my friends kept recommending “Miss Garnett’s Angel”. I was put off right at the start, for the author, seeking to create a dried-up, spiritually dead character, makes her – wait for it – a retired history teacher. This is not a unique case. In “Wise Owl’s Story” by Alison Uttley, Hare, Squirrel and Little Grey Rabbit are sorting out Owl’s belongings after his house has blown down in a gale. The books are all soaked apart from a history book which was “quite dry.” Hare leafs through it and chucks it into a puddle, where it remains dry. What a dreadful reputation historians and history teachers have created for themselves!  We all have a duty to repair the damage. If what you write or teach is “worthy but dull”, beware of being what a colleague of mine described as “so dull as to be no longer worthy.”

That is quite enough for today.

Part of the point of this blog is to let you know about my writings on Kindle. If you want to contemplate my failure to live up to my own standards (and there are certainly no pictures or maps) you will find “Lectures in Scottish History” here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Lectures+in+Scottish+History

And “A Grade History lectures” here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_11?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=a+grade+history+lectures&sprefix=A+grade+his%2Caps%2C181&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aa+grade+history+lectures