The Reasons for studying Medieval past

AT A HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION conference in September 2002, I heard of an interesting report: until recently there were only two countries in Europe, the UK and Albania, where history was not part of the national curriculum up to age eighteen. Now, it was said, there is only one--and it is not Albania. As a responsible historian, I have to tell you that the report turned out to be exaggerated, indeed strictly speaking untrue: whereas France, Germany …

…of 'foreign' languages but of diverse linguistic inheritances that are all the more valuable for being at once different and familiar in terms of vocabulary and concepts; above all not of philistine chauvinisms but of civilised fellow-citizenship. Changes post-1989 affect all of us Europeans in ways more profound and lasting than the tragic drama of 9/11. As the Secretary of State for Education embarks on secondary curriculum revision, can we hope he will seize a tide?