Some further suggestions for approaches to interpretations

The importance of 'incidental' contributions

Interpretations does not have to be a whole-lesson activity; sometimes it can be an incidental part of teacher exposition; referring in passing to the background of a particular historian, or talking about a particular television programme or newspaper article. It is partly about patiently and skillfully taking advantage of opportunities to make pupils aware that history is contested, it is an argument, and that there are different ideas about how to get at what is important, and about what light the past sheds on the present.As pupils progress through GCSE and 'A' level history, they should become increasingly aware of the differing perspectives, positions and theories that can be brought to bear on the past, and that there is more than one narrative thread which can be weaved from the past. They should become familiar with the idea that there are 'histories' in the sense of there being different approaches to interpreting the past.

Sometimes interpretations can be approached at 2 levels:

How to get materials to address interpretations?

• Quotations can be helpful; Cobbett's 'I defy you to agitate a man on a full stomach', the Bolshevik slogan, 'A bayonet is a weapon with a worker at both ends'; any comment, quotation or saying that might serve to challenge their thinking, or disturb their ideas about what history is.
• Extracts from television programmes; "The New Adventures of Robin Hood" (US programme) has been used to ask pupils why this representation of the Robin Hood legend, and life in the Middle Ages is so different from more traditional renderings (and in what ways it is so similar)
• Films of historical events; the "Hollywoodisation" of Pearl Harbour, or Yanks, or Braveheart. The Grapes of Wrath has a powerful extract when the farmer does not know who to blame (and shoot) for bulldozing his shack; capitalism, financiers, the government?
• Newspaper articles: often a good source of controversies, such as the recent furore over race and British Identity, or the commentary on Robert Putnam's book about the decline of community in America, Bowling Alone (see, for example, Guardian, 6 June 2000).
• Television documentaries with revisionist slants, such as Reputations, or the December 2000 BBC documentary, 5 steps to tyranny, which offered psychological insights into obedience and atrocities.
• Reviews of new history books in the broadsheet press; it is often possible to get very different interpretations of the same book ( a good example was the review of Christopher Hill's book, Liberty against the Law, in the Guardian and the Sunday Telegraph, December 24, and December 19, 1996. There are frequently reviews of books which argue for the importance of climate, crops, chance etc on human affairs.
• Bringing in reference to a range of history texts, which provide alternatives to 'Whig' interpretations of the past- Darnton's Great Cat Massacre, Fromm's explanation for the rise of Fascism.
• Anything that serves to problematise the nature of the past, and how people have interpreted it. Not only will this help to develop pupils' understanding of historical interpretations, it will also help to make history more interesting.
• In his introduction toStuart Britain: a very short introduction (Oxford, OUP, 2000), after criticising the role of Charles I and other Stuart monarchs in the downfall of the dynasty, Morrill concludes that:

"Whilst kings and generals toiled and failed... a fundamental change was taking place in English economy and society, largely unheeded and certainly unfashioned by the will of government. In fact, the most obvious revolution in seventeenth century England was the consequence of a decline in the birth rate."

Back to Interpretations

Further reading

Back to History PGCE