... the changes we’ve made to the history curriculum have been welcomed by top academics ...
This is misleading. Who are these top academics? Note that he does not say all top academics, and neither does he offer a definition of top academic. Talking about the First World War, he asserts:
The war was, of course, an unspeakable tragedy, which robbed this nation of our bravest and best. But ...
But nothing. The war was a gross evil which robbed this nation of many men, most of whom were either too stupid to realise that the war was a gross evil in which they should take no part or else were too cowardly to admit the fact.
Gove describes the war as plainly a just war, then offering a lame justification that the Germans were nasty. Here are some questions for him:
Why did Britain not intervene militarily in the Congo Free State (which existed from 1885 to 1908)? Estimates of the number of people murdered there have been put as high as fifteen million.
Why did Britain not intervene militarily when Britain was murdering thousands of people in concentration camps in South Africa in the period 1900 to 1902? It would not of course be easy for a country to go to war against itself, but surely at least the threat of war could have been issued.
Why did Britain not intervene militarily when Germany ran an extermination camp on Shark Island in the period 1904 to 1908?
Why did Britain not intervene militarily when Britain and other countries forced Germany to surrender some of its territories to France and Poland in 1919?
Why did Britain not intervene militarily when France invaded Germany in 1921?
I don't know what the answer to these questions are. What I do know is that the reasons normally given for Britain going to war against Germany in 1914 and again in 1939 do not make sense.
Related posts include:
Regarding the comment: Britain and other countries forced Germany to surrender some of its territories to France and Poland in 1919? together with massive reparations yet there was no mention at all about forcing Argentina to pay reparations for starting the Falklands Conflict at great cost to us taxpayers.
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