What did Henry Ford say about
history?
'As a young man, I was very interested in how
people lived in earlier times; how they got from place to place, lighted their
homes, cooked their meals and so on. So I went to the history books. Well, I
could find out all about kings and presidents; but I could learn nothing of
their everyday lives. So I decided that history is bunk.'
Henry Ford, 1935
This raises the question of whether some
sorts of history are more important than others. One of the recent arguments
over school history has been the merits of what Sylvester (1994) calls 'The
Great Tradition' mode of school history; monarchs, battles, the empire, the
development of parliamentary democracy, against the sorts of history developing
in universities after the war- history from below, cultural history, gender and
history, etc. In a series of speeches, Nick Tate, in effect Chief Executive for
the school curriculum in England, argued for 'more heroes' in British History,
and claimed that the primary purpose of school history was to provide young
people with a sense of their national identity. (see Phillips, R. 1997, 'Thesis
and antithesis in Tate's views on history, culture and nationhood', Teaching
History, No. 86, pp. 30-33). In a colloquium on History at the University of
East Anglia, 23 May 2000, 'The Great History Debate', Professor Edward Acton
questioned this preoccupation with issues of national identity, and argued that
giving insight into the nature of power, and the ways in which it could be used
or not used to promote 'the general good' was a more important function of
school history. (Is it relevant to note here that he is a specialist in Modern
Russian History). Whilst not denying the validity of other forms of history,
for instance, the history of sport, he advanced the claim that although such
histories were 'valid', they were less important and less useful. If we look
again to the work of Ken Burns, whose history of baseball was the most watched
series on U.S television ever, Burns argues that the history of a sport (or of
a form of music) canprovide important insights into the human
condition:
"I suddenly realised that I was working on
the sequel to the Civil War... Too often we see history as a political,
military narrative- in our country, wars and generals and presidents. But here
one could find the American Universe in the grains of sand of baseball. It was
about immigration and assimilation, and the badge, that at that time came from
participation in the so called national pastime. It was about popular culture
and advertising. It was about the growth and decay and rebirth of cities, and
of course, it was about race, because how could you call this the national
pastime if until April 15th, 1947, the most talented baseball players were
excluded from the game."
From 'The films of Ken Burns', C4,
9/6/01
Back to purposes
Back to historypgce
|
