The Significance of the Battle of Flodden

These are a few fairly rapid thoughts, typed out on the morning of September 9^th. It will be interesting to see further contributions.

Today is the five hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Flodden. Those of us who know about it, and who care a bit about it, do wonder why it is not better known. Presumably part of the reason is that it has not been taken up by historians as a battle of any great significance – unlike, for example, Hastings, Bannockburn, the Marne, Gettysburg, Kursk and so on. These were battles that changed the course of history.

So, what about the significance of Flodden?

Clearly it was of huge significance for all those killed that day – probably over 10,000 Scots and over 1,000 English. All those families suddenly turned up-side down. In Scottish history it is seen as important that so many of the great ones of the realm were killed, not merely one of Scotland’s more successful kings, but all those earls and abbots and so on. Since genealogy and family history are important to aristocracies the memory of that day has been kept alive in castles and stately homes all over the country. We, in our more democratic age, might consider the death of one earl as no more nor less significant than the death of one half-trained feudal levy clutching a pike, for “every man’s death diminishes me.”  The Selkirk Common Riding every year commemorates the fact that of 80 men who left the town to join James, only one returned.

In the history of warfare there are some interesting points to be sure. As a reminder that generals ought not to get stuck in the thick of the fighting, that modern weaponry is only useful if soldiers are properly trained in its use, and that impressive siege guns were less useful in an open battle than light field guns, then Flodden did provide some lessons to be learned. But the military revolution being pioneered by the French and the Spanish continued regardless of the events in Northumbria (and see the works of  Geoffrey Parker for more on this.)

As far as England was concerned the significance was slight. Surrey’s remarkable triumph did not save England from invasion. James’s army was really engaged on a great raid, as a diversionary tactic in a wider European war. The slaughter at Flodden exacted terrible revenge for the raid, but James was on his way home anyway; nothing much was altered.

Possibly the raid, and Flodden, reinforced the powerful anti-Scottish feelings in England in general, and in Henry VIII’s arrogant head in particular. An analysis of gentry/lairdly marriages in the period has found only one cross-border marriage. The two sides really did regard each other as aliens. James IV’s marriage to Margaret Tudor (Henry VII’s daughter, Henry VIII’s sister) might have begun a slow change in this ancient hostility. After Flodden there was no chance of that. The dreadful wars surrounding the Rough Wooing, and the overweening ambitions of Henry VIII and Protector Somerset brought generations of misery that, but for Flodden, might not have happened. Ninety years later, of course, James had the last laugh when his descendant, not Henry VIII's, became the first king, James VI and I, of both kingdoms. But if the 1503 marriage of the Thistle and the Rose had brought a more lasting peace, perhaps the intervening years would have been less troubled. Of course the rift came not so much with Flodden itself as with James’s decision to take the French, not the English side in the war. Certainly this renewing of the Auld Alliance, and rejection of partnership with England, were significant.

James IV was having a pretty successful reign. He was popular with his nobles, asserted royal authority extensively, and presided over a lively renaissance court. His death was inevitably followed by faction fighting, since his heir was an infant. But that heir eventually grew up to be a reasonably successful James V. Scotland’s very dreadful decades in the sixteenth century had three big causes: the feuding rivalries of the great families; the struggle for dominance between England and France – into which Scotland inevitably was dragged – and the Reformation upheaval. I suppose if Scotland had had a succession of monarchs who took the throne as adults, rather than babies (as James V, Mary Queen of Scots and James VI all did) they might have weathered the storms better. But there would still have been storms and James VI did weather them in the end. So maybe James IV’s death didn’t change all that much.

Part of the great tragedy of Flodden is that so many died for so little gain on either side. The one definite winner was the Howard family. They had been Yorkists, and the head of the family had been killed at Bosworth in 1485. His son, as Earl of Surrey, commanded the English at Flodden – in itself a bit of a put-down as Henry VIII’s glitterati had gone with the King to France. It was thanks to his great victory, however, that he recovered the Dukedom of Norfolk, which the Howard family still holds.

If you want to know more about James IV you might like my piece about him that is available on Kindle. It is short and not very expensive.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/James-IV-Scotlands-Renaissance-ebook/dp/B00EUAEVCO/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_3_XMJT

Are exams getting easier?

A lot of stuff gets written at this time of year about whether or not exams are getting easier. A lot of this stuff is ill-informed drivel, and in any case the whole issue is usually tackled in a naïve way. Here are a few thoughts of mine on the subject.

1. The actual grades awarded depend to a very great extent on the threshold marks. Is an “A” awarded for 81%, 80%, or 79% (or 71, 70, 69 in Scotland)? These thresholds are arrived at after a good deal of enquiry and discussion and study by senior figures. The simple statistics are used. One does not want “A” grades (for example) to rocket from, say 23% of candidates to 46% of candidates. But the markers’ judgements as to whether questions have turned out to be harder or easier for candidates, the quality of some answers selected at random with marks close to the threshold, and so on, are also taken into account.

2. Yes, the definition of “A” has changed a little over the years. It no longer means “super excellent”. It means “you can do what this exam requires very well.” The first definition had little value; the second one means something useful for all concerned. Exams do not exist to make it easier for would-be elite universities to select their students (though if they do save busy academics time, then fair enough). Mind you, one can over-state this case. In the old days “B” was universally regarded as a good grade (because it was) whereas now you too often hear people saying “He only got a B” – as though that meant mediocrity, not competence.

3. The questions set in an exam must be related to the content of the course. When I was ten years old I had nine Latin lessons every week. Naturally the Latin exams I sat contained more words, and more complicated grammar, than exams for candidates who had undergone a more balanced timetable. we did no science at all. To a very great extent questions become easier or harder not because of some absolute standard of difficulty but simply whether or not they test material that the pupil has studied in depth during the course. Questions on stuff that comes at the end of the syllabus are always harder than stuff that was covered early on and re-worked, used and revised over the whole session.

4. In all the subjects for which I have prepared senior pupils (History, English, Politics, Modern Studies), the way in which essays are marked has an overwhelming effect on final percentages. One of the things the profession has done over the last few decades is start to think that very good essays should get close to full marks, whereas when I started teaching 60% was regarded as a very good score. That is really just pedagogical fashion, and has nothing to do with falling or rising standards.

5. In all the essay-writing subjects, when I started teaching there were no clear definitions of what the syllabus was and no clear definitions of an A-grade essay. For example, should an essay begin with an introduction or not? What relative weights should be given to quality of argument and sheer quantity of recalled material? And so on. I recall teachers-meet-the-examiners meetings in the 1980s at which teachers who were also markers became incandescent with rage as they discovered that some markers had different notions on these things from their own. Only in the late 80s and 90s did we start to get attempts at definition. Today, thank goodness, every teacher, and every pupil, can find on-line their exam board's definitions of A grade, B grade and C grade qualities. Good teachers – even not very good ones – use these in their teaching and so candidates are more efficiently prepared for what they have to face.

6. The same applies to syllabi (or is it syllabuses?). When I started teaching the A-level European History syllabus was just that – European History. A study of past papers gave good clues as to what might be examined (French History overwhelmingly, as I recall) but the lottery effect was terrifying. One candidate might revise four topics and get four questions: another candidate might revise seven topics and only get three. That certainly made exams “harder” but in a totally uneducational and silly way. Now every syllabus clearly explains what may or may not be tested. If it is in the syllabus you have no complaints if it is asked. If is not in the syllabus, it won’t be. Candidates should cover everything in the syllabus and nothing else. This is harder work, but fairer.

7. One very specific procedural change has meant that more candidates get “A” at A-level. The AS courses are intended to give pupils a grounding in the basics of the subject and are generally more straightforward than A-levels, where “curve balls” – questions of unexpected scope and complexity – may be thrown. An able candidate who works hard ought to be able to get good marks at AS (though I have known pupils so able that they could not think themselves down to the necessary brevity), and these marks are added in to the final A-level grade. This is not about making the exams “easier”, though. The key phrase in the previous sentence was “who works hard”. Pupils in what I still think of as the Lower Sixth work far, far harder than their predecessors did, in the days when the first meaningful exam was nearly two years away. Their academic studies are not “easier”; but they know that their efforts will be rewarded, and so they make the effort.

8. Moreover, candidates can re-sit AS papers to improve their marks. For some this has become more of a mark-grubbing exercise than intended. But that is the fault of the universities. If UCAS conditions are “3 As”, then the luckless applicant will leave no stone unturned to get them, even if that means trying to claw an AS score up from 80% to 85%. What was intended, however, – and what still happens – is educationally a very good thing. AS courses are supposed to develop the basics. A candidate who has not mastered the basics is encouraged to work on them some more to achieve competence, just as many of you, dear readers, were allowed to re-train as drivers and re-sit the driving test after you had failed it the first time. School and examination structures must include ways for those who don’t get everything right first time to have another go.

9. Then there are those wretched league tables. Since they were introduced almost everyone in schooling – pupils, parents, teachers, heads, governors, journalists and politicians - looks at them first. Just as the DRS system in cricket is not being used quite as those who devised it intended, so league tables are making almost everyone grade-grubbers in a way that was not at all so when I was at school, or when I began teaching. Thank goodness that for all my career I worked for people who put individual pupils above statistical tables; but I was lucky.

10. And finally (to leave the most important point till last), the main point of the exam system is NOT to produce grades and orders of merit, and to save university selectors’ time. The main point is to see that pupils have worthwhile experiences in school. What has happened in History (which I taught for nearly forty years) is that courses have become far more demanding, even as grades have improved. The modern candidates have to do the old fashioned stuff of learning a great deal of information, making sense of it, and writing essays based upon it. But they also have to be able to analyse the value of modern historians’ arguments (a very difficult skill indeed, which my generation did not encounter till university) and make intelligent use of primary sources. They also have to plan, research, draft, improve, proof-read and finalise a longish dissertation of some sort (rules vary between exam boards). Their grades may be better, but they are also better educated. As for the O-level/GCSE change – it is chalk and cheese. Instead of marks for relevant factual recall (with a question lottery) and little else, now a range of questions have to be interpreted, sources have to be analysed and synthesised and coursework prepared. The courses are (if properly set up) far better.

There could be more said on the subject, but that is quite enough. Scientists and mathematicians please note that I lack the knowledge to say things about your subjects.

Some Thoughts on the Teaching of Spelling

I had better declare an interest right from the start. I am not a good speller. I have a note at the bottom of one of my final-year university essays in the hand of Norman Stone: “Your spelling is rather bizarre”. Naturally this has made me inclined to be sympathetic to pupils who are not good spellers; but it does not mean that my sympathy or my methods are wrong. In fact I am more sure that I am right on this matter than on most others in education.

Of all the things that make up written English, spelling is the least important. (I do not say it is unimportant, but I do assert that it is the least important.) Punctuation matters a lot because it can change meanings. The sentence “He did not go to school because he was ill” means that he did go to school, but not for the reason that he was ill. Word choice matters a lot. For example, to use the word “decimate” to mean “kill almost everyone” will confuse readers who know that it really means “to kill ten percent.” Even if words are used accurately, a writer with a wide vocabulary will write richer, better prose than a writer with a limited vocabulary. Sentence structure is important. An ear for the rhythm of sentences is important. Grammatical points such as making sure that adjectival phrases are unambiguously linked to the intended noun are important. A sensitive awareness of the needs of the reader when it comes to paragraphing is important. Spelling is less important than all of these.

If you do not believe me, try reading some Shakespeare or Donne in their original spellings. Spelling had not been standardised in their day, and yet they were great masters of language.

I was lucky enough to have enlightened teachers who could write in reports such things as “He writes well, despite his poor spelling.” On the other hand when I began my own career as a junior teacher I was surprised to find highly intelligent pupils in lowly sets and streams. Their work had been marked on the “Spelling mistake? Minus one mark” approach. Some of them overcame these handicaps, and the loss of self esteem, to achieve eventual academic success. Others did not.

After a couple of years teaching I began to get a reputation for being “good with” lower sets. My only particular method that I can recall was to put as little red ink as possible on their written work. Many pupils who found spelling hard had developed a cunning plan to avoid making too many mistakes: write very little. I stopped marking all their mistakes in red, praised more than I blamed, and they wrote at greater length.

There seem to me to be two big problems with spelling. The first one is that spelling errors are, for most ordinary readers, the most conspicuous errors; and they are used, by those who lack professional experience, as the bench-mark for literacy. In the thank-you letter to the uncle, the job application, the public notice or whatever, bad spelling is noticed above all else, so of course all pupils need to be helped and encouraged to improve their spelling.

The second problem is that some children seem to have no difficulty with spelling at all. I can remember this with some of my own friends at primary school and I have seen it often with my youngest pupils. There seems to be a mental facility for precision which some possess. However, it is probably true that an above average proportion of the successful in our society were naturally good spellers (I admit I have no evidence for this) and so it is as hard for them to think that children cannot be fairly easily be taught to spell as it is easy for me to sympathise with those who find correct spelling a struggle.

It was during an In Service Training talk given by an expert when I was about 35 that I learned about my own case. She explained that some children learn so rapidly how to read that they never go through the careful piecing together of words letter by letter. That was me. For other children there are many different explanations, not one all-embracing one.   

During my career my ideas developed in conjunction with an increasingly active and enlightened Support for Learning Department. Some of my methods I worked out for myself. Some I learned from them.

In the first place I found that there was almost never any need to motivate younger pupils (we started at ten years old) to try and improve spelling. They had already been corrected tediously often by well-meaning adults and they knew that they wanted to spell better. What was needed was to persuade them that poor spelling did not make them “bad at” History or English, and to provide them with methods for improvement that worked.

When I was teaching junior history we did lots of writing. When I was teaching junior English they wrote something almost every day. I would mark the misspelt words with a tiny red dit – about the size of a hyphen – under the word. (The sprawling red S can spoil the finest piece of work) Then at the end of the piece I would write the word spelled correctly and (this was the Support for Learning slogan) they would “Look – Cover – Write – Check”. If, on checking, they found it was still wrong they would repeat the process. Keen pupils sometimes wrote the word out three times; that was their choice.

The other thing I did was explain from time to time the point I made above – that spelling matters but is not all that important. It was worth a certain amount of effort to create the balance between working at spelling and avoiding the low esteem, or time-wasting, that can come from giving spelling too high a priority.

As I have already said, there are many causes of poor spelling. One of them can be, with some children, a casual carelessness. Part of the teacher’s job – one of the hardest – is to observe when a pupil needs to be pushed to improve as well as encouraged. Certainly with some older pupils, at GCSE stage, a brisker treatment of the “I know you can spell perfectly well when you try…” variety may be appropriate. I once cured a future doctor of putting “would of” and “should of” by one carefully devised lunch-time detention. He thanked me later. However, with little children over-emphasis on spelling can become a real burden and a barrier to educational achievement. A casual child will take no hurt from being allowed to coast for a while when he might be pushed. Earnest children who are criticised and pushed, when they need to be encouraged, may be set back very seriously.

In my role as a senior examiner in History I can tell you that in essays scribbled under exam conditions the spelling is hardly noticed – whereas errors in grammar and punctuation that distort meaning inevitably damage paragraphs, even if they are not explicitly marked down. Equally a candidate whose prose is a pleasure to read inevitably does better, all other things being equal. In course-work dissertations, on the other hand, we take a dim view of spelling errors. Where there is time to check and proof-read, spelling should be accurate. Beware, though, of the automatic spell-checker. It let through one outstanding typo recently: “The Medici came from an eminent Florentine baking family.” I fear my blogs contain some similar slips of the key-board.

Those of you who teach senior school pupils may like to make use of my A-level History spelling test. It is very short.

Parliament – Government – Independent – Toleration – Tenant – Privilege – Develop

If you do the nineteenth century add:  Napoleon – Gladstone – Palmerston – Russell – Denmark - Bismarck

Once we had marked it I would say “If anyone got full marks, I apologise for wasting your time.” I don’t remember that many pupils ever did.

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.