In praise of historical ignorance
Written: Sep 24 '05 (Updated Sep 24 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: a very funny and light read
Cons: requires a knowledge of English history
The Bottom Line: a funny and distorted parody of Englands past.
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| steerpyke's Full Review: 1066 and All That |
Many books, history books especially, seem to have the hidden agenda of promoting the career of the author as much as its educational value. This is one of the few books that can by placed in the historical camp that is designed to console the reader, although it sits just as readily, if not more so, in the category marked satire. Seen by many as a mockery of history, 1066… is actually a lot cleverer than that. In the same way that comedian Les Dawson’s hideous piano playing routine relied on him being totally accomplished in that field, this satire of the history of Britain also requires an in depth knowledge on the part of the satirist. Mockery on the other hand is just throwing stones. Taking the tack that history is not about what actually happened, it’s about what you remember, Sellar and Yeatmans book sets out a textbook like overview of English history. It is a history as if written by a schoolboy who wasn’t paying attention in lessons. The result is a classic work of humour, which in the year I write this is celebrating 75 years of existence. The book does also assume a basic understanding of history on the part of the reader. The jokes and parodies only work if the reader understands the historical realities behind them. For example “Alfred the Cake” and the beard known as “The Spanish Mane” only hit home if you know the story of King Alfred and the cakes and know what the Spanish Main actually was.
A recent poll in one British university gives us an interesting insight into how the book has fared over time. Once a much-treasured addition to the bookshelves of historians and humorists everywhere, the book is now held in fairly low esteem, if known of at all. This is both a tragedy and understandable. To appreciate the full humour contained in its text you have to have learnt a wide range of history and learned it quite badly at that. History is not taught in a broad fashion anymore and so the modern audience for the book is somewhat limited. In a society that focuses its historical eye on Nasty Nazis and Revolting Russians, much of the scope of the book is lost on the modern history reader, It may be fair to say that today’s historian is the one person who much of the book will be lost on. However armed with a broad and shallow knowledge of our past the reader can suspend the serious ideas of England’s past and enter the strange historical alternative presented in 1066…
Beginning with the Roman invasion of 55bc, the first of only two actual dates in the book, it starts its distorted journey.
“Julius Caesar advanced very energetically, throwing his cavalry several thousands of paces over the river Flumen; but the ancient Britons, although all well over military age, painted themselves true blue, or woad, and fought as heroically under their dashing Queen Woadicea, as they did later in thin red lines under their good queen, Victoria.”
One of the funnier aspects of the book is the end of chapter test paper, which asks the reader what he has learnt from the preceding information. These sections feel that they would be equally at home in a Monty Python book. The book trawls onward through its own view of the past ending with the “Peace to end all Peace” which followed the Great War. With its relentless puns, malapropisms and garbling of famous lines the book reads like a collection of schoolboy howlers, a sort of history based written version of “Kids Say the Funniest Things”.
The book is focused on only the memorable things in history, for example it suggests that the “Cause of the Tudors” comes about because of the need for more memorable kings following the forgettable monarchs of the Wars of the Roses. It does also add that the Tudors also became kings because the Stuarts weren’t quite ready yet. In typical humour also the authors invite the readers to suggest parts of the book that were not that memorable so that they can edit those parts out of future editions. So with all of its fascination with remembering what happened in history, it’s ironic the book has become largely forgotten. Some see the fact that it has slipped into obscurity as a sign that the reader’s tastes have matured over time. That may be so if you are trying to take the book seriously. Yes, it’s inappropriate, politically incorrect and deliberately wrong in its factual content, but that’s because it is a work of humour and should be judged on those merits. The Scots for example “come into history” only to provide Edward I with someone to slaughter, the Irish only emerge when they have an “Irish Question” to raise and the common man at large only appear during the “Pheasants Revolt” or to be prodded by “Morton’s Fork”. No one can seriously see this book as an attempt to rival works of history; it exists merely to parody it.
Rather that spending long hours researching their subject matter in the Bodleian Library like the professors whose works they send up, this book was compiled after “years of research” into the ignorance of history that they found “in golf-clubs, gun rooms, green rooms” through out the land. And that statement in itself sums up where the book is coming from. If there is a higher purpose above its value as entertainment it is to act as a warning as to how we present our history to the modern consumer. How far a step is it from Sellar and Yeatmans “Industrial Revelation” driven by a “wave of gadgets” to the over engineered history presented in shows such as “What Did The Victorians Do For Us?” Is our political (over) correctness any less self-righteous than their jingoism? But I guess that I’ve fallen into the trap that I'm warning the reader of. Don’t take the book too seriously. It’s the product of a past time, in itself a part of history, and its inappropriate view of some of its subject is both refreshing and forgivable. So for historian and non-historian alike it is a fun journey through a past that never happened. Treat it as pure fantasy, laugh at the jokes and enjoy it.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
steerpyke
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Member: Dave
Location: Kingdom of Wessex
Reviews written: 205
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About Me:
here's to gratuitous sax and senseless violins
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