History and National Life

by Peter Mandler

Once again everyone is talking about history and its practitioners. Why do people care about history? It is still casually assumed that the 'point' of history is to tell us 'who we are'. History and National Life, by a historian whose last book The Fall and Rise of the Stately Home (in effect a history of much of the 'heritage' idea) was hailed both by historians and general reviewers as 'superb', 'wonderful', splendid', 'fascinating' and 'enthralling', argues that history is less directly 'useful', but also richer than that. Here, Peter Mandler, writing largely in a British context, examines how successive generations use central historical totems (e.g. Henry VIII, Starkey's Elizabeth, the Walter Raleigh of the cover, the Civil War, World War One) for their own purposes - educational, moral, cultural or political. He concludes with a look at the debate about national English/British identity.

184 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[C. B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fabulously stimulating examination of history in Britain from the nineteenth century to the present, both in academic and popular contexts. This book is surely the very definition of 'concise'.

[Christopher Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really excellent little book which examines the place of history in British national life since the nineteenth century. This in itself forms an interesting narrative, but the book also provides excellent summaries of key historiographical developments and analysis of disagreements over the purpose of history. It gets an impressive amount of content into its 163 pages, and is well worth a read - especially with a very fluent writing style that is deep but not difficult to comprehend.