HUMANITIES

WHAT IS THE VALUE OF HISTORY?

I subscribe to the Times Literary Supplement each week. A cynic might think that this is to boost my intellectual cred. No, the truth is more mundane than that. For the fact is that there is not time enough in a lifetime to read all the books you want to or should. In my case, I am very aware that time is running out. So the TLS it is.

As a teacher of History, the TLS is particularly useful. These days it seems that history books are sold by the kilo: heavy tomes coming in at 800 pages or thereabouts. Who has the strength to hold such a book without risking RSI? Again, this is where the TLS comes in handy and most recently I was taken by a review of Andrew Roberts’ new title George III. 

What more is there to know about the last king of America? There’s the well-reviewed film The Madness of King George, for instance, and a comprehensive deconstruction of the man in the musical Hamilton. The man’s a villain, right? The baddie who promoted slavery and saw the world through the lens of autocracy. Wrong, wrong and wrong again. According to Andrew Roberts, George III was crucial in holding back the arch-conservatives of British politics who wanted a return to divine right of kings under a revived Stuart line. Not only was George about to resist the reactionaries but he was instrumental in seeing off Napoleon through his promotion of people like Wellington. As for being an apologist for slavery, George came into direct conflict with Washington who wanted slaves returned to their original owners (of whom Washington was one). 

Books like this take us out of our cosy assumptions and force us to re-evaluate the world as it was and as it is now. Already there are commentators in the US who are promoting the lie that the January 6 invasion of the Capitol in Washington was ‘a peaceful protest’. Blogs and tweets are so easily disseminated and, it seems, so easily believed. We need to access real history writing to get at anything like the truth. 

Start reading, folks.

Simon Hughes

Head of Humanities