Teaching Global History & the marketing of history
The historian Simon Sebag Montefiore has called for there to be less teaching of English history and a focus on history from across the world (Times 1st November). He argued at the Petworth Literary Festival that teaching about the history of the British Empire, whether seen as good or bad, is not as important as understanding the histories of people from across the world. He noted for example that the Great African War which took place in the Congo between 1998 and 2003 which involved nine countries and saw five million dead was hardly known about in Britain.
Dominic Sandbrook has put a counter argument that there were few teaching materials available for the kind of history Sebag Montefiore is calling for. Further given that school history lessons were brief the key thing was to attract pupils and ensure they got good results.
Sandbrook emphasises the role that the market plays in history education but one wonders if teaching the real history of the British Empire would not fulfil much of Sebag Montefiore’s call for global history. There are surely texts available to do that, even if they are not on the approved reading list of Tory Central Office.
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