1066 and all that ....

[Eric]

[quote=steeljack;678659]

Originally Posted by Eric

Would imagine the Aussies and Kiwis think the same about Gallipoli , it gets to be part of the national psyche, simaraily with Iwo Jima and the Americans, and the defeat/retreat at Dunkirk with the Brits

Indeed it does become part of who we are ... and this is one point about history and its teaching that is quite problematic. History is not some "thing" that is out there waiting for some enterprising historian to discover it. I remember watching "Das Boot" with some friends; and I was the only one cheering at the end of the movie ... maybe I hadn't had enough tokes to get myself into the "willing suspension of disbelief" bs, and I had difficulty explaining to my friends that they were confusing the bad guys with the good guys (could have been the dope) ... Come to think of it, I didn't have the same reaction to "Stalingrad" ... maybe I had lived too long in a world where the Soviet Union was portrayed as evil.