The Study of History is Depraved and Decadent - Preface to a Gonzo History

“To future ages may thy dullness last,
As thou preserv’st the dulness of the past”


Men once fought and died for the noble ideals that they discerned from History. To do so was, of course, morally very questionable. In fact those that did so were fools. However, one must admire their spirit. Indeed it is the absence of that spirit that has made History the sham it is today. It is barren, lifeless and in the emaciated hands of foul practitioners, who condense and distil its colourful flavours into a drab, boring grey. We, enlightened readers, must liberate History from the clutches of the Oxbridge necrophiliacs who salivate over antiquated dust-covers in the safe seclusion of the library. It is no longer enjoyable, only commercial, no longer truthful but sedatory. Where are the lively discussions in coffee houses? Where is experimentation? Where is innovation? They are gone, hidden by layers of mediocrity and stultified senility.

Our history is our identity, so what does that make us, the society that produces such insipidity as is seen in today’s works? A confused, bumbling, pretentious mess with a shiny cover, with the obscurity of the esoteric and the shallowness of the populist?

What must be done?

We must unclasp the manacles of mediocrity. Rise up – Sing, shout, dance to Clio’s beautiful tune, for alongside her sister muses sits Clio, equal to them in status and now with an open mouth!

This journal’s goal is, like a Don Quixote of the archives, to seek out new adventures in the foreign land of the past; we will confront the uninteresting and unimaginative wherever we find them and lay siege on their repugnant form. Whether it is by treading the untrodden path or approaching the familiar with new eyes we will progress, bold in our resolve and unflinching in our steps, towards that most worthy of ends: The Historical Truth.