History

I've been watching the reruns of Simon Schama's A History of Britain, a sweeping 15-part series that dates back to a time long before Schama became an annoying metroliberal pantomime dame – and to a time when the BBC would put good money into producing a straight, intelligent narrative history, presented without gimmicks and authored by an actual historian. Imagine that happening now, quarter of a century on, when narrative history is barely taught in schools, and profound historical ignorance is the norm. How did this sad state of affairs come about? It's hard not to blame the constitutional vandal Blair, perhaps the first British Prime Minister to entirely lack a sense of history, except as something to be 'on the right side of' – a notion barely less fatuous than 'things can only get better'. (The right side of history of course meant the left side of politics.) A proper sense of history, i.e. the past, is, it seems to me, essential for any society, any nation to thrive, and…