1066 and All That
by Walter Carruthers Sellar, Robert Julian Yeatman · first published 1930
7mentions
4recommended by
6HN commenters
2018–2026first – last mentioned
67% recommend33% neutral
A tongue-in-cheek history of England which takes as its basic tenet the idea that history is only what you can remember and is therefore a collection of half remembered facts. The authors maintain that there are only two memorable dates, these being 1066 (the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Invasion) and 55 BC (the first Roman Invasion). The book begins with the Roman invasion and continues to the end of WW1, when America ‘was clearly thus Top Nation, and history came to a.
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I enjoyed this book (1066 and All That): https://www.amazon.com/1066-All-That-Memorable-Classics/dp/0...
on “How England misplaced its first king” ↗There is an excellent fun little book "1066 and All That", which parodies English history as people remember it from their education. It happens to have been written in 1930 but most of its jokes hold up, and the subset that people remember from that period…
on “‘Lies My Teacher Told Me’ and America’s Post-Truth Era” ↗Umm, YT. And Roadkill, though I don't think he ever gets on stage in Snow Crash. I didn't know that it would be on the test... 1066! You should find a copy of 1066 and All That. I'm slightly surprised that the Gutenberg Project hasn't made it available. I know a few dates before and after that, but not that many.
on “Why books work: A rebuttal to Andy Matuschak (2019)” ↗> "was 1066 really all that?" This article might exist just for this joke in the sub-headline. Pretty good. "1066 and all that" is a highly influential satirical history book from 1930, and "[X] and all that" a meme in UK English. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1066_and_All_That
on “How Important Was the Battle of Hastings?” ↗According to Yeatman and Sellar, that's the only date most of the English know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1066_and_All_That
on “The English test that ruined lives (2022)” ↗From 1066 And All That [1]: Wave of Egg-Kings Soon after this event Egg-Kings were found on the thrones of all these kingdoms, such as Eggberd, Eggbreth, Eggfroth, etc. None of them, however, succeeded in becoming memorable…
on “From Æthelflæd to Ælfthryth: The Idea of Queenship in Tenth-Century England” ↗I’m afraid that already happened after World War I, according to the final sentence of 1066 and All That <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1066_and_All_That>: > America was thus clearly Top Nation, and History came to a . (For any confused Americans, remember . is a full stop, not a period.)
on “The Internet Is Full of AI Dogshit” ↗