Tuesday 12 October 2010

Conservative Historian Simon Schama to Collaborate with the Tories


Richard Grayson, a journalist for the Guardian newspaper in one of his more lucid moments, wrote that putting the very conservative historian Simon Schama in the classroom would "reshape the history curriculum and using his storytelling talents would be a good start."[1] Grayson, in the same article, calls Schama "a brilliant historian who understands the problem of narrative."The problem is that Schama's narrative is a very right-wing one.

As Tom Mackaman points out "Historians such as Schama who assert that the British Empire was actually the progressive force in the American Revolution do much to distort or downplay the fact that it was the Empire that dominated the slave trade for the better part of two centuries, in the process generating enormous profits that found an outlet in British industrialisation—and palatial aristocratic estates. (They also must hope that their readers are unaware of the long and bloody history of British imperialism in Ireland, India, China, the Caribbean and Africa!." [2]

Grayson whitewash of Schama's right-wing ideology continues with this pearl of wisdom, "One of the key strengths of Schama's work points to one of the problems of "narrative". Schama's take on history is a personal take. A History of Britain was precisely that: 'A' not 'The' history. I do not doubt that Schama recognises the partiality of his approach. It is the same for any historian. We do not state at the start of each book, "this is only my view", but we all know it, despite the accusations that postmodernist theorists have tried to pin on the profession".[3]

According to Grayson, no historian should be responsible for the narrative they produce after all history is just a collection of opinions, narratives with no objective basis for those opinions or narratives. Schama's historical narrative( he describes himself as "a born-again Whig" has naturally been supported by leading Conservative party members such as Michael Gove who believe that education had been undermined by left-wing "ideologues" who believed schools "should not be doing anything as old-fashioned as passing on knowledge, requiring children to work hard, or immersing them in anything like dates in history or times tables in mathematics. "These ideologues may have been inspired by generous ideals, but the result of their approach has been countless children condemned to a prison house of ignorance," [4]

Gove makes clear in this statement that any lingering egalitarian sentiments expressed in the current education system will not be tolerated. The announcement that Schama was to help rewrite the history curriculum has received widespread media coverage. The Financial Times recently carried an interview with Michael Gove, the education secretary, who said recently that he would not have left school without learning "British narrative history".

The Tories would like to introduce a more nationalistic form of narrative. As Gove states "Children are growing up ignorant of one of the most inspiring stories I know – the history of our United Kingdom. Our history has moments of pride and shame, but unless we fully understand the struggles of the past, we will not properly value the liberties of the present."[5]

Simon Schama is enough of a historian to know that the Tories right-wing agenda will provoke global social unrest. Schama has already warned of this writing in the Financial Times May 24, "far be it for me to make a dicey situation dicier but you can smell the sulphur in the air right now and not think we might be on the threshold of an age of rage.… in Europe and America there is a distinct possibility of a long hot summer of social umbrage." [6]

A person that knew a bit about social umbrage was Karl Marx who wrote in the Communist Manifesto that "a spectre is haunting Europe". As Marxist writer Chris Marsden relates "in recent days, some media commentaries have predicted a similar eruption of social unrest of revolutionary dimensions as a direct result of the worsening economic crisis. These warnings are accompanied by dire predictions that Europe will suffer the return of nationalist tensions, the emergence of fascist movements and even war".[7]

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/06/simon-schama-history-schools-david-cameron
[2] In Defense of the American Revolution- www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/07/14/revo-j14.html
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/06/simon-schama-history-schools-david-cameron
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Gove
[5] https://conservative-speeches.sayit.mysociety.org/speech/601441
[6] https://www.foxnews.com/story/have-our-leaders-abandoned-common-sense
[7] Europe's media warn of global social unrest- https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2010/06/pers-j02.html


No comments: