What historical events should a UK adult know about?

[julieca]

So what do you think an adult brought up and living in the UK should know about history? I don't mean in-depth knowledge, but just very basic knowledge.
I think adults should all know about -

• Both world wars and a bit of understanding about how many countries were involved
• Transatlantic slave trade
• Reformation
• Existence of cold war
• Holocaust, Hitler and Nazi party
• Partition in India
• English Civil War
• Roman Empire and that it included England and parts of Wales
• Act of Union
• Troubles in Northern Ireland
• Suffragettes
• Feudalism
• Black Death

[GnomeOrMistAndIceGuy]

Exactly! For example, the Titanic is something they are mad about. We start it by giving them a lanyard with a name on they must wear, and as the unit if work progresses, the find out more about their character and their fate. They love learning about the class system, which leads on brilliant to relevant PSHE discussions about perceptions of class into today's world, and is this fair, etc. All history can be linked to today's world. I did not enjoy history at school but (without blowing my own trumpet!) I wish I'd been in lessons like my teachers teach now.

[julieca]

Nobody needs to know anything beyond what is strictly necessary for work, to eat, clothe yourself, etc.
Why do we need to know what a cow is called? Or a sheep? Or the name of the country we live in? Or who is the Prime Minister?

[bongsuhan]

Perhaps - despite or because of Brexit - post WW II development in continental Europe and the development of the EC/EU and what it is.

[julieca]

@GnomeOrMistAndIceGuy this is exactly what my son's primary school did. They each had a name and were in different class accommodation. The teacher used it to teach lots of things, and then they found out whether they would have survived or not, and looked at why some were more likely to survive and some were not.

[inferiorCatSlave]

Whatever they want to and what interests them. Nobody "should" know anything.

DD1 was shocked in her Y9 that none of her friends knew about the Suffragettes.

I do think perhaps governance - power who has it how it's changed with time and how we got our current poltical systems and the different unions and perhaps releavant history to understand current tensions in UK- should be there or more than it often is.

Most of my history was picked up post school - TV, radio books, wipedia and you tube - but I do think our TV channels here are actually very good at educating wider public about historical events.

[LadyEloise1]

You can't know about the Troubles in Northern Ireland without knowing about Strongbow's invasion of Ireland in 1169 ( he was invited 🙄 ) followed by Henry the 2nds activities there and subsequent English monarchs and 700 years of fighting for Irish Independence.

[plinkplinkfizzer]

I am not Welsh , but we never hear enough about Welsh history and how Wales came to be part of the UK . I know England abolished Wales laws and took titles for themselves . It never gets a mention .
Also abdication of Edward VII is historically important .

[plinkplinkfizzer]

Edward VIII .

[thedancingbear]

-the furtling of Southampton
-the Anglo-Scottish Potato Treaty
-the assassination of Edward IX

[londonmummy1966]

Ex historian so I have a vested interest.... I think that there is history that people need to know - ie the history that explains how we are the society that we are today and the history that is good to know - often that which explains the physical bits of the past that we see around us. The former would include (by no means comprehensive):

History of English relations with the rest of the UK - ie Edward I and the conquest of Wales, Union with Scotland, colonisation of Ireland

History of Parliament -Anglo Saxon law, introduction of the feudal system, Magna Carta, Simon de Montfort, Civil War, suffragettes etc etc

British Empire

Medieval guilds, Industrial Revolution, Labour movement etc

The good to know bits would include:

Roman Britain, road system, major towns etc, Hadrian and Antonine Walls, trade/colonate/patronage

Norman conquest, Doomsday Book and the building of castles to control first England and then Wales etc, medieval affinities and the Wars of the Roses

Conversion of Britain, Reformation, anti-Catholicism, Armada, Gunpowder Plot etc,

Redistribution of wealth and power under the Tudors, agricultural reform, enclosure, development of the English Country House,

Urbanisation

[thedancingbear]

@plinkplinkfizzer

I am not Welsh , but we never hear enough about Welsh history and how Wales came to be part of the UK . I know England abolished Wales laws and took titles for themselves . It never gets a mention .
Also abdication of Edward VII is historically important .

The Acts of Union 1536 and 1542? Where the English rammed their collective penis as far up our Welsh rectum as it would fit, and then kept pushing?

It's a remarkable period of history and underlines what oppressive shits the pre-20th century English/Brits were.

Fun fact - well-known 'Wenglish' names such as Hopkins, Simpkins etc. are actually English 'pet names' from the era that were imposed on the locals in lieu of their (admittedly ludicrous) traditional naming conventions. It's like us invading Spain now, and changing everyone's name to 'hunny' and 'snugglebums'.

[TrashyPanda]

The aftermath of war and the subsequent impact on society - eg depression in Germany after WWI, Cold War, Iron Curtain
Migration into Britain - we all hear about Windrush, but nothing about the largest immigration into the U.K., which was of Polish soldiers after WWII. Which ties into my first point - Yalta essentially sold out the poles, but that is conveniently forgotten. Obviously this would include Jewish migration, migrants from India, Pakistan, Uganda etc.
Equality - equal pay, employment rights, right to vote/own property etc. impact of Trade Union Movement on this.
Nuclear proliferation and its impact on international relations.

[junglejane66]

The Fourth Dalecarlian rebellion in Sweden.

[debwong]

The Roman invasion
Boudica and the Celtic tribes
Viking invasions
Norman Conquest
The Norman kings' invasion of Ireland and how that conflict carried on for the next 800 years
Spanish Armada
Age of exploration and colonisation
Industrial revolution
WW1 and WW2
Suffragette movement
Partition of India
Cold War

[Hen2018]

I’ll add the:

Peterloo Massacre
Anything to do with the slave trade (not covered at all while I was at school, though it is now)
If in England - any Welsh, Scottish or Irish history at all...
Indian famine and partition
The concentration camps the UK set up in the Boer War

[Fheu4543]

Not read through most of the thread - but surely some understanding of world history. Most Brits will end up knowing about British history - but how about the history of France, Spain, 'Germany, 'Italy' etc. Similarly history of China, Japan, Russia, the US, etc etc etc

But then I think the English curriculum is really narrow and kids should study history till they are 16. I love the IB which is much more comprehensive. Some of my colleagues have chosen to send their kids to say French schools in London - in part so they learn more about subjects such as history than what is currently offered in England

[Anoisagusaris]

Before learning about the Irish famine, people need to know about the plantations of Ireland by England.

[IsleofRum]

The great reform act
Barbary pirates raiding English coastal villages for slaves
The royal navys role in surpressing slavery
Britain's welcoming of oppressed groups

[Duckypoohs]

Meh, what the fuck difference does it make? People are very stupid and will vote for what the people in charge want them to. People on here discuss policy issues like they won't just accept the dictats from the powers that be and argue that they were always in favour of them.

[Duckypoohs]

You only have to look at the abuse vigilant/pepper people got on here in the early days of the pandemic. They were ridiculed and slandered until the BBC got on board.

[julieca]

The first thread I saw about covid coming was taken down after many reports for scaremongering. But anyone who knew about 1918 flu pandemic would not have dismissed it out of hand.

[FindingMeno]

Things that will teach us lessons for the future and help us understand current affairs.
So, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Palestine/ Israel, Afghanistan, the USSR, Korea.

[AgentProvocateur]

The Irish famine
The Scottish clearances
The enlightenment.

[LadyCampanulaTottington]

Irish genocide at the hands of the British (I.e famine) Let’s not paint a picture that the famine was caused by nature thank you.

[AosSi]

@Anoisagusaris

Before learning about the Irish famine, people need to know about the plantations of Ireland by England.

Absolutely. If nothing else, it'll go a long way to explaining how NI came to be.