People's History Museum: Heritage

I stopped first thing at the Left Bank Cafe Bar, which is part of the People's History Museum, to prepare myself for my first meeting of the day. The Museum describes itself as the National Museum of Democracy, with the byline "There are always ideas worth fighting for".

I think it was Churchill who said ..... "History will be kind to me, for I will write it myself". Spot on.  I have read his "History of the English Speaking Peoples", which is very much how history was written 70 years ago (and still is in a lot of quarters) - kings and queens, the growth of empire, battles and wars, a celebration of the nation state and its successes. 

What gets missed is the history - so far as it can be known - of ordinary working people and their lives. That is what this museum is about, from the Peterloo massacre onwards. A heritage not of buildings and monuments, but of ideas - which maybe at the end of the day are more important.