ABSTRACT
Sir John Seeley's definition of history as past politics doubtless appears today at least before reflection as outmoded as the works in which he applied it to the previous two or three centuries of the national story. Political history is widely regarded as at best vieux jeu, as the residuum of history after all its significant parts have been removed and given separate labels, or as a mere framework maintained to promote these other kinds of historical study. To take to witness our own national scene, school history courses and textbooks are overwhelmingly political in content, as are the examination syllabuses on which, in the senior school, those books and courses are increasingly focused. In the Oxford History, a pattern has been set which is exemplified, in its most recent volumes, by the allocation of somewhat less than one-third of the contents to non-political matters. Between political history and national history there is a necessary indissoluble connection.
