John Hooper Harvey (1911–1997)

This book was written in 1947. I did not consider this to be significant when I found it lounging upon a second hand book stall with a preposterously minute price tag. After all, by the 16th century, the Plantagenets were history so, 1947 is positively up to date.

Wrong! 1947 was, of course, just after the conclusion of the Second World War and we Brits were making rather a bad fist of coming to terms with the fact that Britannia did not sit astride the world in a position of complete dominance. John Harvey is quite open about his position, even in the preface, he is proud to explain that stupid foreigners have sacrificed their royalty but, Great Britain has had the intelligence to retain the system of rule by God's chosen representative. This view that the King is not as other men and completely incapable of error, pervades the entire work.

To begin with, this seemed quite a wacky wheeze but, the more I read, the more it set me thinking. Mr Harvey's version of history was not only praised by reviewers, but seen as suitable for educational purposes. Disgraceful, it wouldn't happen now......but, how can we be sure that in fifty years time, our views will not be considered as archaic as John Harvey's is now? The depressing thing is, that we cannot and, surely this calls into question the entire reason for reading history.… (mer)