This is a lecture delivered by the author before the University of Oxford on 29 February 1996. He considers the way in which an authoritative and monopolistic English version of Britain's past came to be established in the 12th century. He shows that it was a patriotic, regnal, and political interpretation and one which treated the pre-English history of Britain, in spite of the best efforts of Geoffrey of Monmouth, as simply a curtain-raiser to the English saga. This Anglo-centric interpretation marginalized, or completely overlooked, much of the histories of the rest of Britain and its various peoples. It was given its acedemic apotheosis in the history syllabuses established at Oxford and elsewhere in the years 1866-86. Professor Davies concludes his lecture by saying that the time is now ripe to approach the history of Britain in a more comparative and pluralistic way.
- ISBN10 0199513775
- ISBN13 9780199513772
- Publish Date September 1996
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 9 May 2003
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Oxford University Press
- Imprint Clarendon Press
- Format Paperback (UK Trade)
- Pages 27
- Language English