History teaching? Karl Marx would agree with Michael Gove – and so do I | Simon Jenkins

We would not study plays from the end backwards, so why mess with the story of our nation?

Every argument in English history re-enacts the civil war. Cavaliers fight roundheads, Catholics fight Protestants, right wing fights left, tradition fights change. Echoing down the hall of time is the same old question: whose side were you on at Marston Moor?

The trouble with today's row over Michael Gove's history curriculum is that coats have turned. The "progressive" roundheads of Labour's 2007 c...