Our Story, Not History
It is the responsibility of parents and politicians to define and pass on a nation's values and identity, argues Tim Stanley. Historians and teachers of history should be left alone to get on with their work.
Can history be used to teach national identity? Earlier this year the historian and Labour MP Tristram Hunt published a paper – The Importance of Studying the Past – that claimed Britain was producing a generation of children that lacks ‘a collective memory … a sense of connection to place, time and community’. To prove his point Hunt cited a study that found that 84 per cent of undergraduates don’t know who commanded British forces at Waterloo and 89 per cent cannot name a 19th-century prime minister.
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