I have friends whom I know could develop a real and enjoyable casual interest in history, if only they came across it in a more de-mystified form they might feel a little more comfortable accessing (something I've tried to accomplish now and again here at History and the Sock Merchant).
Indeed I created the very name of my blog to foster such an accessible atmosphere, If my blog were called 'Musings of a Modern Humanities Student' or 'Contemplating Digital Humanities' there would never be anyone turning up out of sheer curiosity.
Recently I came across the work of an historian who is an ardent practitioner of the noble notion of making history more accessible.
Teacher and writer Nick Shepley is working to create a history of the 20th Century in a series of 100 eBook titles that comprehensively explain 20th Century history to non-historians, combining in depth study with accessibility which also makes them ideal for GSCE and A-Level learning.
Earlier this week I read his 'The Roaring 20s and the Wall Street Crash', and found it a completely lucid and intelligible piece of history writing. This edition takes us from Americas entry into the first world war -leaving it the most affluent country the world had ever seen, through the fantasy of American capitalism in the 1920s culminating in an examination of the causes of the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression and finishing with an assessment of the effectiveness of the government's economic remedies. All whilst busting myths of the crash of 1929, explaining in very clear terms how it actually happened, and drawing enlightening parallels to today's economic woes.
In short, this is an excellent introductory study of the economic crisis of the 1920s and 30s. that both describes the psychology and popular attitudes that led to it and the resulting catastrophic fallout and puts it in context rather than falling into the trap of only describing the sheer scale of the catastrophe.
This is a series of books which could make a real and profound difference to the accessibility and impact factor of history, if anyone out there has source material they would like to include in Nick's work, he will give an acknowledgement, share any material he has with you and generally be a source of knowledge and comradeship henceforth. Nick can be contacted at: Nick_shepley@hotmail.com if you would like to get involved.
All Nick's eBooks are available: HERE
Next up in his eBook series will be 'Japan 1894-1941' and then a long view of Stalin's Five Year Plans.
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