The Joe Public Guide Series
JOE CASTELLO
The Joe Public Guide to the History of England
Introduction Contents
Introduction
This THIRD EDITION reduces ‘The History of England’ to a summary of headlines.
It’s purpose is to give an overview and perspective of the main events.
It is also hoped to whet the reader’s appetite for a greater knowledge than can be provided by this publication.
This project combines school notes of the 1950s with a reread of Our Island Story by H E Marshall.
Wikipedia and The British History Encyclopaedia were used as references for the post-Victorian period.
Whatever any modern education theory may maintain, history is linear and vertical, and can only be understood in this way. Time may be an artifical construct, but it is the only one we have for understanding the past; and if you do not understand the past, you cannot understand the present. Once we have the vertical progression, then, indeed, we can branch off in a horizontal direction and then return to the main narrative. First get the facts. Of course the presentation here is simplistic; it has to be; but historical truth is simple.
There are, of course, some cynics who say that history is merely the propaganda of the victor.