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'Niall Ferguson, the British historian most closely associated with a right wing, Eurocentric vision of western ascendancy, is to work with the Conservatives <http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/conservatives> to overhaul history in schools <http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/schools>. Speaking at the Guardian Hay festival<http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/guardian-hay-festival>, the Harvard-based academic, whose historiography is often considered to be an apology for imperialism, laid out his ideas for a vision of the school history curriculum in which, he said, children should be taught that the "big story" of the last 500 years "is the rise of western domination of the world".' I found the above report from the Guardian very interesting. Recently here in Oz we have had a new national curriculum imposed on the school system for the very first time. Again it is worth noting that this new curriculum contains a strong emphasis on history. That is partly due to the recent "history wars" where there was something of a battle over which view of Australian history should dominate. The battle lines were between the "black arm band" view which stressed uncomfortable things such as the genocidal policy towards Indigenous Australians, and the "white-arm band view" which laid emphasis on the creation of a great nation. The history debate here simmers on and indeed could break out afresh. There are several issues involved in this "return to History". Firstly where are the history teachers to come from? History as a discipline has like "English" been vanishing from the universities. Secondly the technical thing of how to teach history - themes versus narratives is not without interest. More important are the questions why a return to history and why now? I suspect that this is an attempt by the right to address the glaring absence in contemporary Western capitalist societies of something beyond the market, something which will knit society together after market competition has torn it apart: if you like a centripetal force to counter balance the centrifugal force of neo-liberalism My personal bias here is to welcome the return of history and of narrative history as well. The struggle then becomes over which narrative - from below or above? It is worth noting in this context that Ferguson lost his temper with the hint from a reporter that he was not a neutral above the combat figure. To my mind Ferguson is so transparent a right winger that I am almost tempted to like him. Certainly his views are hateful and in all probability he himself is a horrible human but his stated positions are much less hypocritical than those of the Evangelical Christian "we don't do Empire" lot that dominate American foreign policy. I am mind full always of the adage "Be careful what you wish for", but any break from the unctuous hypocrisy of a Bush or an Obama would be welcome. comradely Gary ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
