A histoire croisée of Anglo-German Relations in the 1920s to 1940s

A browse through my son's GCSE History exercise book reveals nothing surprising: the causes and battlefields of World War I, the Treaty of Versailles, the 'age of the dictator', the rise of Hitler, World War II.The topics haven't changed since I took the same course thirty-odd years ago.Then, as today, pupils are required to memorise key dates relevant to the two World Wars, know how many men were slaughtered, how many bombs were dropped, how many boats sunk.They debate long-and short-term causes of war, and discuss its rights and wrongs."Dunkirk: a triumph or disaster for Britain?'; "Were the British right to bomb Dresden?"; "Was the use of atomic bombs in 1945 justifiable?"-these are just three of the essay titles that my son has been asked to respond to, in his scrawly, hurried hand.The focus on war in the teaching of history in Britain's schools is as strong as it is long-standing.As a primary school child I drew diagrams to explain how the British defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588.I had no interest in military history or the fire power of ships and no-one ever explained why we needed to know in such detail what happened in this long-ago war fought by men in ruffled collars.From there we jumped to the Crimean War of 1854 and dutifully memorised the Charge of the Light Brigade.Theirs but to do and die / Into the valley of death rode the 600.I retained nothing of the technicalities of the disaster but only the unsettling knowledge that stupidity and power are not unlikely bedfellows.From there, briefly, to the Boer Wars, my heart weeping more for the 400,000 horses that were killed than for the 40,000 odd men (I was well into K. M. Peyton's magnificent Flambards series by this point).The move to secondary school meant a move to the two World Wars: destruction and murder on scales unfathomable. Anglo-German Relations: War-based PrismsIn terms of Anglo-German relations, the focus on war has stark consequences.British children -and the adults they grow up to be -are well-versed in the nine years in which Britain and Germany were at war, but know little about the hundreds of years of peaceful relations and close cultural and dynastic ties between