This is a recording from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021: https://archives.battleofideas.org.uk/2021/session/history-wars/

How should we decide what works of literature, art and history form the ‘canon’ in our curricula, and which historical figures should we choose to adorn our establishment buildings? Are today’s students really too sensitive to live and learn alongside Britain’s past, to appreciate that today’s moral standards are different to those of our ancestors? And how big is the issue of calls for decolonisation? Is the idea that the school or university curriculum should rely on codified knowledge of the past simply a desire to maintain the status quo?

Speakers:
- Nicolas Kinloch
history teacher; teacher fellow, School of Oriental and African Studies; honorary fellow, Historical Association; author, In Defence of Teaching History

- Dr Sean Lang
senior lecturer in History, Anglia Ruskin University; author, First World War for Dummies; fellow, Historical Association

- Dr Alka Sehgal Cuthbert
head of education and co-ordinator, Don't Divide Us; author, What should schools teach? Disciplines, subjects and the pursuit of truth

- Sean Walsh
teacher; head of history

- CHAIR: Kevin Rooney
convenor, AoI Education Forum; politics teacher; co-author, The Blood Stained Poppy

History Wars

Listen to recordings of our discussions and debates. Our aim is to expand the boundaries of public debate, to break out of today's echo chambers and challenge orthodoxies.

History Wars

Academy of Ideas