From the Editor

1861 and All That

Is history a collection of improving tales in which, to borrow the language of 1066 and All That, historical events can be neatly classified as Good Things or Bad Things with historical actors playing equally heroic or villainous roles? That is how first-grade history used to be taught—and maybe it is the only way it can be taught. Perhaps, as children, we have to absorb national myths before, as adolescents, we discover the more ambiguous historical reality underlying them.