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to keep intact a mandatory program and make 16 years

Towards the end of a typically overwhelming performance at the Hay Festival in May, during which Niall Ferguson denied history as taught in this country, attention turned to the public to reveal the new Education Secretary Michael Gove, had snuck into the event and sat somewhere near the back. And after a few exchanges not entirely convincing surprises along the lines of "Do you want to count on you" "You are wonderful", "No, you're wonderful," Gove Ferguson offered a job in place to help reform the curriculum the story.

The message of the two was evident. The country had gone to the dogs, and teaching of history was partly to blame. Under 13 years of a Labour government, school children of the nation had learned more than a few soundbites episodes on the Nazis, and therefore had no actual knowledge of, or pride, the past achievements of the country. Replace Britain, celebrating the past, forget the post-colonial apologetics, and the little guys will stop stabbing each other and the lower back and start looking for a job. There was a post-election story for the new coalition government seeking to reassure the country of the heart of the territory of a homecoming, common sense approach to education has been firmly in hand.

wisely, perhaps, Gove has chosen to consult not only Ferguson. Instead, using the address book that mysteriously opens the new ministers also invited several well-known historians, including Simon Schama and Richard Evans, to bring their suggestions for the comprehensive reform of education of history. Somewhere not too far in the process, has also asked David Cannadine, Dodge Professor of History at Princeton - and, with Ferguson and Schama, one of the main exports of the UK university in the United States - for their thoughts. Eighteen months after the line, Gove and you do not want that.

Like Gove, and Ferguson, Cannadine also had a keen interest in how history is taught in public schools, unlike them, he did not believe the rumors and rely on ideology was the best way to decide public policy. "There have been many theories about how the story he had learned over time," Cannadine said, "but no one had done any research to provide detailed evidence to support them." Then two years ago Cannadine and a half, with two researchers, Jenny Keating and Nicola Sheldon, funded by the Linbury and the Institute of Historical Research, set out to find empirical data, and this week the results are published in the right kind of history .

What is clear is that there never was a golden age of the teaching of history in which all sentimental left school knowing the names and dates of each King and Queen, or enjoying one last triumphant. "If you go through the records," says Cannadine, "it is clear that until the Second World War history is taught only to a very small elite, and even then it was hardly a theme dominant. Together with Albania You are one of the few countries in which the story is not mandatory above 14. And with only two or three hours per week schedule until that age, the opportunities for students to gain a broad base on the subject are rare. "

Cannadine not think the fault lies with the national program, which was introduced under the Thatcher government in 1988 in response to similar concerns that the standards of education has been reduced and something needs to be did. "It has become fashionable to call the history curriculum for being too episodic and students do not learn enough about how the interconnections past, but the real problem is that there is enough time to teach everything "says Cannadine. "If you look closely at the history curriculum, it covers almost everything you may want students to know, the problem is that there is enough time to teach it is inevitable that they will gaps in people and always learn .. So, even before the national program. In 1930, Tudor was the equivalent of the Nazis of today, with everyone complaining students spent time in more Tudor style at the expense of other periods. "

Moreover, history has included many more fields of study in schools over the past 50 years, where once mostly limited to wars, diplomacy and economy somewhat, which now includes race, gender and social issues. As a further dilution of the subject remains within a specified period was almost inevitable.

If the history curriculum is not adapted to the purpose and Cannadine believes that we should look beyond politicians and Whitehall for the guilty, as when Kenneth Baker

"History should never be used merely as a means for transmitting a desired national narrative," he said. "Putin is doing just that in Russia at the time to insist that certain aspects the Soviet regime should be taught in a more sympathetic. There are also calls in some U.S. states to rewrite their teaching of slavery. This can not be right. If a country has reason to feel uneasy about his past, then so be it should be adult enough to face that does not mean you should wallow in guilt, .. instead we should accept good or bad, without giving more importance either. "