There's been a lot of news lately about taking down monuments to terrible people, or renaming buildings that were christened after them.

In related news, there's still a statue of Oliver Cromwell outside of the UK House of Commons in Westminster. Cromwell led English Army against King Charles I and served as Lord Protector of the British Isles until his death in 1658. In 2002, he was chosen as one of the 10 greatest Britons by the BBC. He was also responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths in Ireland, and the export of thousands more Irish into forced (non-chatel) servitude in the Caribbean.

But you wouldn't know any of it from this delightful children's book about his life!

Did you know Cromwell was basically great and you got most of your freedoms from him? Go figure! pic.twitter.com/cdCcQXAQgh

 David Kenny (@dkennytcd) May 5, 2020

The book clears up many misperceptions you might have about this era. For example, yes, most puritans were no craic. But they weren’t ALL like that. Some were like Cromwell, who literally cancelled Christmas. pic.twitter.com/HksIlG0vh7

 David Kenny (@dkennytcd) May 5, 2020

You certainly couldn’t accuse the book of whitewashing Cromwell’s character or underplaying his campaign in Ireland. These dashes add an important parenthetical for the reader’s inevitable conclusion that he was basically great. pic.twitter.com/tmdbwZr90R

 David Kenny (@dkennytcd) May 5, 2020

Even Winston Churchill — who did not have a particularly positive relationship with the Irish — thought Cromwell was a dictator:

Cromwell’s record was a lasting bane.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/06/13/this-childrens-book-about-ol.html