Telling history the old fashioned way ..... People in History, R.J.Unstead

I am not a fan of that new generation of history books aimed at young people.

True they are colourful, offer high quality photographs, along with original source material and can be imaginatively presented, but all this comes with a price.

And that price is that they seem to sacrifice the story with its sweeping narrative and opportunity to get lost in the tale.

Added to which the amount of material on the page can be a tad bewildering and overpowering.

So I have turned to a fine collection of stories written by R.J. Unstead in the 1950s.

Now I am the first to point out that People in History was written from the stand point of “the great men and women in our country’s history” and of the twelve covered in the first volume only two are women.*

Nor is this any better in volume two in which only Queen Philippa and Saint Margaret, Queen of Scotland strut across the pages which are otherwise dominated by Kings and Princes.

But that is to miss the point.  In much of the books I was given at school, women played no part at all in “our country’s history” and there was a very clear assumption that our past was shaped by the actions of Kings and generals with just a grudging acknowledgement that perhaps Elizabeth 1 and Queen Victoria had to be included.

And Mr Unstead widened his interpretation of what constituted “great”.

So in volume one alongside King Alfred and Queen Boadicea were saints, a Pope and the Roman general Agricola while in the second volume Geoffrey Chaucer, William Caxton and Wat Tyler rub shoulders with William the Conqueror, the Lion-Heart  and Henry V.

And the presentation of men like Wat Tyler and John Ball are fair and the explanation for the Peasants Revolt does not trivialise or ignore the genuine grievances of the poor in Medieval England.

Of course with the passage of time, Boadicea has become Boudica and some of the illustrations would no longer pass the test of historical accuracy but that said Mr Unstead’s stories remain a jolly good read, and that I think is an important consideration.

For long before any of us develop the analytical skills to make sense of original sources we have  to have been captured by the magic of the past.

And while the stories are Mr Unstead’s version of events the selection and presentation of pictures and sources in the new generation of history books are themselves the product of someone’s choice, the logic of which may not always be explained.

So I think I shall go back to Boadicea’s anger that “the Romans treat us like slaves” and follow the marauding Iceni army’s encounter with the 9th legion and then on to Camulodunum, Londinium and Verulamium, before meeting their fate at the hands of the 14th and 20th Legions.

Picture; drawings  by J.C.B. Knight, from People in History, R.J. Unstead, Volume one

*Introduction, People in History, Book 1 From Caractacus to Alfred 1955

From cave to castle and on to a high rise ............ the story of houses and how we used them

I never think you can get enough of the history books written by R.J. Unstead in the 1950s.*

This one comes from Black’s Junior Reference Books** and was published in 1958.

It was not one that I was given as a child but I rather wish I had because in just 80 pages it offers a clear and comprehensive description of houses from earlier times up to the mid 1950s.

It is paced full of interesting information on the style and construction of houses, along with the possessions that could be found in them and much about how people used their homes.

And above all it is the excellent collection of line drawings of everything from castles and cottages to windows, furniture and how the house moved from being a communal place to a more private residence of just one family.

It is also a book I often go back to as a starting point for ideas, and pictures of the everyday domestic objects from a 19th century kitchen range and copper to a Tudor  four poster bed and Roman Hypocaust.

It isn’t that I couldn’t find these elsewhere but there is a pleasure in leafing through the pages and coming across some old favourites.

Not that this is just a sad slide into nostalgia, instead it is a celebration of when history books for young people were informative, fun to read and just jolly good books to have around.

I suspect also they were embraced by teachers and librarians in those post war decades when education and schools were themselves undergoing profound changes.

So once again it’s a thank you to Mr Unstead and I rather think I will go looking for a few more.

Pictures; from A History of Houses, R.J.Unstead, 1958

*LOOKING AT HISTORY, PEOPLE IN HISTORY, TEACHING HISTORY IN JUNIOR SCHOOLS

**DEEP SEA FISHING, TRAVEL BY ROAD, THE STORY OF AIRCRAFT, COAL MINING, THE STORY OF THE THEATRE, TRAVEL BY SEA

R.J. Unstead

Of all my favourite children’s history books those written by Robert John Unstead are the ones I most frequently return to.

He was a prolific author and his career as a teacher shines through in what he published.

These were books to be read, enjoyed and understood by children, often reading on their own.

They were also full of both colourful paintings and more to the point simple accurate line drawings which could be copied.

I wonder how many young children like me spent hours carefully reproducing the picture of a Norman castle and comparing it to later castles, noting the changes in design.

I do not think you can underestimate the degree to which this brought history alive.

His other great strength for me was that much of what he wrote was designed to describe the lives of ordinary people, including their homes, forms of entertainment and work.

This was history from the bottom up and was a powerful counter blast to stories of Kings and Queens. Not that Unstead ignored royal stories there would always be a market for such history. But these are balanced by those given over to descriptions of the lives of all in society.

Picture; Cover of Looking At History A & C Black 1955

"a book about the everyday lives of the ordinary people of England"

I don’t think you can better the introduction by R.J.Unstead to his book Looking at History as a statement for what a children’s account of the past should be like.

“This is a book about the everyday lives of the ordinary people of England from the days when they lived in caves to the present day.  It shows how they built their homes and cooked their food, how they dressed, fought, travelled, worked and enjoyed themselves.

“This is, in short, a social history for children, which sets out to give them enjoyment and understanding that comes from ‘looking at history.’”

And this he did with “nearly 1000 illustrations which have been selected from contemporary sources or specially drawn, after careful research.”

There will be critics who point out that it is a book which is just about England, does not reflect the contribution of people who settled here from other places, and is light on its treatment of the role played by women in our history.

All of which is true, but it was written in the early 1950s when many history books concentrated on telling the story of Kings, Queens, generals and the rich.

By contrast Looking at History and many of his other books are history from the bottom up, and are as much about the poor, and working people as they are about the powerful, the famous and the people of plenty.

And for me what drew me in and still does are those illustrations some of which are in colour but most were line drawings which had a realism that made the book a must for a six year old.

In fact it was those line drawings which really captured my imagination, and years later when the book was republished in the 1970s substituting coloured versions of those pictures I for one thought the impact was muted.

That said the book could be found in schools and libraries from the 1950s onwards.

It was divided into four parts and continued to be used from the 1950s well into the 1970s.

Now I have lost touch with the children’s history books and rarely pick them up but those produced by Mr Unstead still have a special place on our book shelves.

Picture; The Press Gang, J.C.B. Knight, from LOOKING AT HISTORY, R.J. Unstead, 1955, A. &C. Black Ltd

Looking at Ancient History

This is another of my favourites and well worth a look at.

In just over 100 pages R J Unstead presented the young reader of the late 1950s with a sweeping story of the lives of people  from Ancient Egypt through the civilisations of the Two Rivers and to Crete, The Greeks and the Romans culminating with a section of What we owe to the Ancient World.

And like so many of Mr Unstead‘s books it mixes wonderful illustrations with descriptions of everyday life.

What I particularly like about the book is that concentration on “ordinary lives” which were beginning to become part of how history was presented to young people.

Picture; cover of Looking at Ancient History, R J Unstead, 1959