Monday, September 8, 2008

1066 and All That

1066 and All That is a book title that strikes me as being interesting. I think I would like to have this book. Here is what the intro says:

'1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England, comprising all the parts you can remember, including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings and 2 Genuine Dates is a tongue-in-cheek reworking of the history of England. Written by W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman and illustrated by John Reynolds, it first appeared serially in Punch magazine, and was published in book form by Methuen & Co. Ltd. in 1930.

The book is a parody of the Whiggish style of history teaching in English schools at the time, in particular of Our Island Story. It purports to contain "all the history you can remember", and, in fifty two chapters, covers the history of England from Roman times through 1066 "and all that", up to the end of World War I, at which time "America was thus clearly Top Nation, and history came to a ." (this, last, chapter is titled "A Bad Thing"). It is based on the idea that history is what you can remember and is full of examples of half-remembered facts.'

Jen, you may need this book. So do I.

8 comments:

Julie said...

Looks fun to me! I'm all for all the history I can remember. If I'm allowed to not remember the rest. ?

Momstheword said...

Good golleywogs! How could I understand the book when I don't even understand your blog about it?

Jessican said...

Wow, that does look very cool. I'm currently reading a book about Winthrop's Puritans in Boston and "relearning" all sorts of facts I forgot, made-up, distorted, or just glossed over in ignorance.

History Facts are funny like that.

Paula said...

I think the book could be funny. If you look it up on the internet, you can see there was a musical made from this book. I would like to see that.

Kay Day said...

That does sound interesting being the Anglophile that I am. Is that the right term for loving England? That's what I mean. Not that I am a racist - that's not what I mean.

You also spent a good amount of time utilizing the linky thingy on that post!

Paula said...

Kay, actually the linky thing came with the the Web entry when I copied it.

Kay Day said...

Q,
I love this new picture. I think it is very suitable. But it is sooo tiny. So I am still looking for something bigger.

Unknown said...

Hello, if you haven't already you should DEFINITELY read 1066 and all that. It's one of the funniest books ever written. There's also a really good recent book called 2066 and all that: Memorable Modern History from the Suffragettes to Saddam - has lots of good jokes about Bush, Iraq, World War 'Won' and World War 'Too'. Even the bit about Vietnam is quite funny.