In our eighth Ramsay Lecture for 2023, eminent UK historian and founder of the History Reclaimed movement Professor Robert Tombs ponders ‘Are the History Wars Worth Fighting?

Is our past really being misrepresented in our schools, cultural institutions, and broader society; leading to the history of the West being presented as one only worthy of shame, apology, and reparations? Or are the ‘history wars’ merely an invention of the paranoid, to stir up synthetic controversy and prevent belated recognition of dark sides of our past?

Professor Tombs examines the cost to society from historical half-truths, whether in the form of violence, a loss of sense of community, or a belief that violence, racism and exploitation in the past is a permanent feature of the West in the present day.

He argues that while we must recognise difficult aspects of our past, we need to “…urge society to remember accurately, fully and honestly, and to understand the vital differences between the past and the present, crucial to understanding both our forebears and ourselves.”