John Rentoul: Why it’s not too soon to study Blair

Jan 29th, 2009

It was 19 months ago that Tony Blair left office with a quizzical, “That is that; the end”, and yet it feels like a different era. His government already seems to have moved from current affairs to history. Just as well, really, because Queen Mary, University of London, has launched a course on the Blair government for final-year history students. It is an unusual venture, bringing contemporary history right up to date, and building on the tradition established by Peter Hennessy, the department’s leading professor, of historical inquiry based on primary sources and first-person testimony.