h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

D'you ever get the impression that teachers generally approach this subject from the wrong angle? When you're a kid, you don't really give a stuff about the invention of the wheel or lost civilisations (well, except for the ones in those Ray Harryhausen movies where there'd be the chance of a decent monster to spice things up a bit). That kind of thing only really starts to grab you when you've left school and stumble across a documentary one night. But it's the history that still has some kind of relevance to today that really captures the imagination.

We were very lucky to study Britain during World War Two when I was nine years old. It made more sense and was more immediately exciting because it was about places we knew, and circumstances we could at least imagine (in 1980, Britain had come through years of strikes and was approaching record levels of unemployment, so even though we didn't have rationing, we could imagine it by thinking about how our own families made money stretch further).

We got into the idea of history, and learned the methods by which you appreciate the subject, so that the following year, when we studied the Tudors, it was much more exciting for us (especially because there was a stunning Tudor hall in nearby Speke, which was reputed to be haunted - great field trip that one).

History was my favourite subject at school. For the first three years of my secondary education (from age 11 to 14) we studied a sort of general history, starting with the dinosaurs and sort of running out somewhere around Henry VIII. Then when we came back to do our final two years (from age 14 to 16) I took history as one of my 5 option subjects. For my CSE and 'O' level history (I did both) we did 20th century world affairs. For CSE we also had to do a project on any historical subject we liked so I did The Tudors and had my project completed and handed in 3 months before it was due What a creep! I got a Grade 1 for my CSE History and a Grade C for my 'O' level.

I am still interested in history and I like to look around historical buildings from time to time and I watch people like Simon Schama and David Starkey's history programmes on TV. I did my first 'A' level when I was 30 and History was the subject I chose. The course was The Tudors, early Stewards, Civil War and Interregnum. I got an A.

Why does History interest me? Not sure actually. My Mum is interested in all kinds of stuff, so maybe it's her fault - she did drag us around a lot of stately homes when we were kids. My brother says we were culturally abused

History has absolutely been my favourite subject since 'junior high school' (from age 13 to 16). I had always liked thinking about the past and how people lived and dressed etc. in the old times, but the classes in elementary school had been quite boring and hadn't gripped my imagination. What changed everything was the teacher I had in junior high - he was the best one I've ever had. Sure, the subjects were more interesting than before - we had Napoleon, the World Wars, the spread of imperialism - but he had a way of making *everything* fascinating. He was such a good storyteller. It didn't even feel like school to listen to him talk about how Trotski met the axe. The lessons were incredibly informative, but they weren't just about history; we also discussed current events, cultural differences and just generally the human nature. This teacher also had such an imposing presence that everybody was afraid of his wrath, which he consequently never really had to show. He was almost always in a good mood, even at 8 o'clock on a Monday morning, and what's really important, he was incredibly enthusiastic.

I was madly ambitious, so his high standards were a delicious challenge for me. Nothing in school made me happier than getting full points from a history exam because I knew I'd really earned it.

I still love history. I read it in my free time and I'm thinking about studying social history at university.

Yeuch no, history was my least favourite! Al those dates and names of kings and things that I could never remember.

"History is bunk"

History would be bunk if it weren't about people. The present is controlled, not so much as by what happened in the past, but by what people think about what happened. This is a similar situation to psychology where, for example, to understand psychology you have to have read Freud, even if he was completely wrong, because people understand psychology through what he (and others) said about it.

You have to treat history as a narrative and not as a bunch of unconnected events. So instead of remembering the stark (and rather dull) fact that a particular king lived between X and Y, you relate his life and rule to his influence on politics and the society of the day. The way that common folk live changes slowly, giving a slow moving continuum of events against which to pin dates and historical events.

I was very fortunate to have at least one very good history teacher. When in a good mood he could be encouraged to quote large passages from "1066 and all that", which, if you don't like the idea of history, is as good a source of entertainment based on historical events as I can recommend. In the end I actually got a good grade in my history exam because the teacher I had that year was an irritating git who I didn't get on with at all. After he predicted that I would fail my history exam I just had to prove him wrong and I actually worked harder in the history exam than in any other.

I was fortunate too to study a relatively relevant period of history for my exam, British history 1815 to 1955. This period and focus explain a good deal about the structures of the world and its politics from Europe to China, although America doesn't feature particularly large except in time of war..... Oh, that sounds familiar.

I always enjoyed history, the only problem is that i'm rubbish at writing essays, so i always got really bad marks (yay for my E grade A-level). Though i believe it is considered one of the harder A-level subjects.



I remember one of our teachers use to teach history via Blackadder videos. Which was great, even though you started thinking that the majority of historical events were caused by Baldrick's 'cunning plans'.

I've just finished my a-level history (Got an A, excellent). We also had the best teacher, a six and a half foot scouser (That being a person from Liverpool, a city with a reputation for breeding tough people) with a definate army toilet paper attitude to the school and life in general. Beneath this veneer, however, he genuinly loved the subject and passed this on to the select few a-level students every year who braved the class.

The old phrase about a page of history being worth a book of mathematics is absolutely true. Nothing makes you honestly think and reassese your view of the world more then History and no explaination of why its study is essential can quite work without leaving something out.

I too found history quite boring at school, but the periods taught and the teacher make a huge difference. The older i get the more interested i get about what has shaped the world i live and today i am very interested in history, in fact I am currently reading a book about history!

My passion for history came first when I was 12, the subject matter mostly being Western history from the past 4 centuries. It was all thanks to Mr. Webb, possibly the only other six and a half foot Scouse historian of all time (the first one having tutored B&L - see above).
But I really got into it when I was 15 I moved back to South Africa and realised the kind of history I was missing out on (or even, out on which I was missing). The kind my parents hadn't really told me about, the kind that Mr. Webb the Scouse (brilliant though he was) could only begin to understand.

Since then I've made it one of my Missions in Life* to know everything about South African history. It isn't easy. It doesn't really answer any questions, and occasionally one comes across a fact or two that, accurate or not, would be completely unacceptable in today's political climate...

Nonetheless the experience has made me understand how essential it is for our children to be introduced to relevant, contemporary history so that they might understand themselves and the world they live in. Dates and kings and Romans and that are all fascinating, but there is something greater for our children to learn, as B&L so rightly puts forth. Surely an understanding of contemporary history is at least as vital to the shaping of a thinking adult as a keen grasp of trigonometry?

* The others are (1) to invent some sort of Better-Tasting Cheese, and (2) to get Taz McGinley to marry me.
The cheese is coming along quite nicely.

You mean there's two teachers like him wondering around? This is a dangerous thing. Because, as I think Bertrand Russel said, historians are dangerous people.

Totally with you on all points, who gives a crap about the exact date of the 12th Party Congress where Stalin gained power? What really matters is the sequence of events this created and the fact he went onto kill tens of millions of people. What's even more important, is that as he was supposedly on our side, we make Hitler the great Evil Man of the Twentieth Century and pretty much leave Stalin alone with his Gulags. Meaning, when you ask the average Joe (Excuse the unitentional pun), about history all they harp on about like a tape recorder is this country's part in WW2, D-Day and all that garb.

It has always struck me as curious that of the three major players in European despotism, Stalin killed Xteen million people in the course of his reign, Hitler did away with a 'mere' 6 million people** while Mussolini could barely manage enough killings to merit the title of 'mean-spirited buffoon'.
Yet at the end of it, Mussolini and his wife were tortured and beaten to death, as well as being mutilated and left hanging upside down in someone's garage with his goolies in his mouth***.
Hitler was afforded the quiet luxury of suicide, along with his new bride Eva.
And STALIN... he died in his sleep.
Ain't life grand?
Incidentally, does anyone out there know what happened to Stalin's wife?
I'm just asking because I noted the demise of the two other wives...


** Although I've recently come across some research that disputes this figure. Anyone else hear about this?
*** They were no longer attached.


Oh, and should anyone misunderstand me, I am in no way condoning the actions of Mr. Hitler or Mr. Mussolini, nor am I defending their characters. I think they were both Very Bad, and deserved a Good Kick In The Shins.