G K Chesterton

A Short History of England G K Chesterton

It will be very reasonably asked why I should consent, though upon a sort of challenge, to write evena popular essay in English history, who make no pretence to particular scholarship and am merely amember of the public. The answer is that I know just enough to know one thing: that a history fromthe standpoint of a member of the public has not been written. What we call the popular historiesshould rather be called the anti-popular histories. They are all, nearly without exception, writtenagainst the people; and in them the populace is either ignored or elaborately proved to have beenwrong. It is true that Green called his book "A Short History of the English People"; but he seemsto have thought it too short for the people to be properly mentioned. For instance, he calls one verylarge part of his story "Puritan England." But England never was Puritan. It would have been almostas unfair to call the rise of Henry of Navarre "Puritan France." And some of our extreme Whighistorians would have been pretty nearly capable of calling the campaign of Wexford and Drogheda"Puritan Ireland."