“Why we need to make history cool again”

In this Guardian article media savvy historian and presenter Bettany Hughes argues that Britain needs to make history fashionable amongst young people. She’s writing in response to a recent survey claiming that fewer than one in three fourteen to sixteen year olds study the subject in school. While I admire her passion and the point she is making, I’m really not sure anybody should hold the film 300 up as a way of encouraging an interest in history. Surely anybody who is intrigued by the tale of washboard stomachs fighting soldiers portrayed as orcs might be a little disappointed in the real battle which, while a stirring tale, wasn’t as fantastical.