Do you think we get a dodgy version of history in the U.K?

Question

Certainly I've been told that there were 2 Irish genocides,
Japan has trouble with it's history,
Many Americans think they invented democracy and cite the declaration of independence even they owned slaves for nearly 100 years afterwards. In short, it's easy to see other countries miopic view of history; but are Brits the same?

Answer 1

All countries have their own version of history that paints them in the best light. The British are no different. Some of the behaviour of the British in conflicts from the Boer Wars to the situation in Northern Ireland raises matters of which the British should not be proud.

I had a German penpal who had no knowledge of the Holocaust whatsoever as she had not been taught that in school. America glosses over its actions in Vietnam. There are terrible things happening daily in Iraq and Afghanistan on all sides.

It comes down to propaganda and spin. Many incidents happen which each side is anxious to portray in the best light for them in the media, this is never corrected and it goes down in the annals of history in the same way. It's only years later with the benefit of hindsight and some testimonials of those that were there that any correction, healing or apologising can be done.

Answer 2

No.

At least, we shouldn't do nowadays. Gone are the days when History teaching extolled the virtues of the British, glorified the Empire, and vilified anyone else. There was a time, not long ago, when it went too far in the opposite direction; but I think it's more even-handed now.

(Thanks for the agreement, Xamanater. It is true, however, as you say, that there are some topics that could do with an update - you cite the Black Death. I would say, though, that the age to which we teach, say, the Black Death, is still at the bottom end of the "History skills" ladder - there are some things that we really can't make more complicated, otherwise we'd (a) never get beyond one topic and (b) some of the children just wouldn't make any progress.)

Answer 3

Of course British history is warped in its telling but the point of history is to use multiple sources to try to build up the truth.

Examples of warpped British history that I have seen come from my 30 years in Northern Ireland. I remember the British Army blaming a pub bombing on the IRA when it had been carried out by the UVF. This was the story that reached the press.

We were all taught how we fought against Hitler to free the Jews. The fact is that the war was about oil. The fact is that we didn't know about the concentration camps until we were half way across Germany.

British history rarely contains the mass killings of the colonial days, the genocides in Ireland. But that is the same in every country.

Answer 4

Marcus 035 is right.
The other answerers wouldn't even be saying what they're saying if history teachers and their textbooks didn't try very hard to be fair. Can you imagine an Arab, a Turk or even a Spaniard ever admitting their forbears had done anything wrong? The reason it's so rare is because of the History they're taught.
And, for the "own version" people: just because something looks different from different angles doesn't show it has no shape at all or any shape you want to give it.
BUT one thing I would say to history teachers is: keep up to date w the latest discoveries! Most of them are still trotting out the "rats and fleas" explanation for the Black Death although modern research has largely discredited it. Similarly w the Dead Sea Scrolls being written by Essenes.

Answer 5

It seems that the educational systems in all countries create versions of the past to make their countries look good. The Swedes have no idea of how much their country cooperated with the Nazis. The Russians have no idea of the 100 million murdered by Stalin. The Chinese have no idea of the 120 million murdered by Mao. The Japanese are unaware of th eatrocities their army commmitted in Mongolia, China, the Philipines, and Korea. The Germans have no concept of the extent of their genocide. The Israelis think that they were the only ones murdered when 12 million actually died in concentration camps and other forms of genocide in Germany. Anyone, not considered white, was killed. The Americans don't understand that much of their Constitution was copied from English philosophers like Locke and it was written in order to appease all of the independent colonies so that they would join the union. Slavery was not made an issue to appease the southern states even though Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Franklin objected to it. They think that the Constitution was based on the visions of the founding fathers. Americans don't know of the mass murder of the Indian nation or have a concept of the 700,000 people who died during their own civil war. They don't know that their country exists simply because the winds kept the English from sailing up the East River to seal Washington's army's fate during the revolutionary war.

Brits do not know the extent of the genocide committed by the British Empire. They are not aware of the 3.5 million killed in India, the total destruction of the Tasmanian population, or the extent of the murder and oppression in Ireland. Between 1125 and 1853, 8 million Irish were killed. They don't know that they bragged about this in Parliament and called it population control. They don't know that Parliament complained that the famine in Ireland would only kill 1-2 million Irish and that as these people starved 200,000 British soldiers oversaw the export of enough food to feed 4 Irelands. They think that they did these people a favor only to have them turn on them. They don't know of the Clearings in Scotland during the same famine. They are not aware of the pact that they made with Spain which allowed British monopoly of the slave enterprise as long as they supplied slaves to the Spanish in the Carribean. They aren't aware of the coffin ships where the captains intentionally overloaded their ships and tossed the extra slaves and passengers overboard in order to make a claim to their insurance compaies for cargo lost at sea. They don't know that they captured and sold 1,000s of Irish as slaves.

None of us know what we have done but, a few of us would like to know.

Answer 6

Having lived in both the US and the UK I think the differences in history are wide and varied. Americans tend to shine at their own history but not all of it. Being part Indian I learned a lot of history from the Elders of my tribes also, whites tend to sugar coat it.

I think we should stick to our own history and leave other countries to themselves too. If you have an unbridled interest in American, Russian, Japanese, tec history then get books written by historians of that cutlure but get a varied supply as most people tend to be biased.

US history of the UK is biased towards their own coutnry as is the UK of its own.

But here we are talking apples and oranges anyway. It was once put to me like this and it really opened my eyes to the vast difference in the two countries histories.... in America you speak of history that is 200+ a few years old. In the UK your house is likely 200+ a bit old.

As for dodgey? I don't think anyone gets dodgey history, just biased and it doesn't hurt to read more than one take on any part of it.

To give an example remember when Rome came on and there was such an uproar because it was mostly embellished? Well we are now in the midst of seeing Ancient Rome and it is factual and precise. The UK does listen to what the people say much better than most other palces I think.

Answer 7

Generally i think that British history is good and has a wide prospective of world history since we were a world power for many years we have managed to gather a lot of information.Yet i do believe some of it will be (bull) especially if it has alot of political "stuff" about it and may still be being covered up today such as secrets from the second world war that are just now or recently been uncovered or aloud to be known pulically

Answer 8

Of course. History is adapted to what 'they' want 'us' to know. This does not apply solely to the UK. Thanks to the Internet, it's becoming more difficult to pull the wool over people's eyes. When in Hong Kong, I lent a book about China to a neighbour from the USA. She was appalled to read that the USA was also involved in the opium trade. She had been taught that only the UK was involved. Just a small illustration.

Answer 9

Television gives us the history it wants us to hear. It is up to us to find out the truth. The internet is a major way of doing this. The fact is that history is written by the victors

Answer 10

Yes, everywhere has it's own version of bias in history. I think the worst problem in the UK is the range which people are taught - WW2 and the Tudors. And that's all they ever show on UK history.