Education

History in Schools: A Tsar is Born

Following an invitation to help advise the government on the school history curriculum, what can a high-profile ‘telly don’ like Niall Ferguson bring to the classroom? Seán Lang wonders.

The First English Family Letters

Maurice Keen chronicles a set of 15th century letters - the product of everyday communication between English gentry and officialdom - and suggests how their contents may change the reader's views of the late middle ages. Helen Castor offered her own contemporary historiographical account in 2010.

Education: Narrowing horizons

The decision by Sussex University to drop research-led teaching and implement a post-1900 curriculum will produce scholars lacking in historical perspective, says Martin Evans.

History of Linguistics: To Speak Like a Child

How children acquire language is a question that continues to be of fascination to medical scientists and educationists. They all owe a debt to Charles West, 19th-century pioneer of specialist paediatrics, as Paula Hellal explains