> At any rate, although the 1860s is HARDLY comparably distant as the days of Socrates, the idea is the same. When I read those diaries, history shrinks. Unless I misremember, my grandparents knew someone who knew Henry Shute, and, just like that, the Civil War is connected to me through a short, traceable chain, instead of some vague, unknown passage of many years. Suddenly the Civil War no longer seems like an event that occurred over half our country's history ago but something I just barely missed.
>

One of the big shameful chunks of british history often ignored in classrooms are the Highland Clearances. It really suprised me to think that mass evictions were still occurring during the lifetime of my great grandparents.

Even more surprising is that some landowners are still just as petty, greedy and self serving as ever:

1997 (March) -- The 31-Mar-97 edition of The Scotsman reports: "The tenth Earl of Airlie, a former Lord Chamberlain to the Queen and brother of Sir Angus Ogilvy, has started an action to evict Norman Ogg, 58, a farmer, from his 125 acre farm on the 40,000 acre Airlie estate. "Nearby, in a separate action, Captain Alwyne Farquharson, chief of the Clan Farquharson and 16th baron of Invercauld, is trying to evict Jean Lindsay and her son, Sandy, from the 2,500 acre hill farm she has farmed for 26 years in Glenshee. "Capt Farquharson wants to extend the area available for grouse habitat -- and at Kinwhirrie farm, near Cortachy, Lord Airlie wants to improve the pheasant shooting."

Bourne