Education secretary Michael Gove took to the podium alongside historians to convince a lecture theatre that making history compulsory until GCSE-level was a crucial step forward in the national curriculum.
Following Professor Sir David Cannadine's argument that topics are "rushed" in the current syllabus, Gove spent half an hour regaling tales and anecdotes of his experience of history lessons. He then regurgitated facts from a study which were later disputed by a member of the audience as being "completely misquoted".
The speech formed part of a 'History in Education' conference - unfortunately spelled 'eduction' on the distributed pamphlet - which took place at the University of London on Thursday.
According to Gove there is "a thirst in young people to know more about the culture and civilisation which shapes their future".
"They are being fed thin gruel intellectually."
The secretary of state for education advocated the importance of teaching British history to pupils saying, the role it plays in the GCSE curriculum is "tiny".
"The majority of students study Hitler's Germany or American West history. This is clearly wrong.
"One of the skills I would like to see students develop is the ability to argue and separate falsities from the truth."
Gove told the audience history was integral to honing these skills and anyone "unaware or ignorant" of great events in history is "cut off".
"History is so much more than citizenship", he added. "It should have a bigger and more privileged place in our classrooms."
Gove had to field questions from a professor of history at Cambridge, who has - rather awkwardly for the state secretary - penned several books on Hitler's rise to power.
Another member of the audience requested Gove to concentrate on the matter at hand rather than flaunting his knowledge and reminiscing about his good old days of history lessons.
Despite Gove warning of the dangers of politicians imposing their "passions" on the national curriculum, he rounded off his speech by saying he would "dearly like other young people to grow up with a subject I so dearly loved".
Gove's interpretation of how history should be taught has not gone unnoticed by other public figures.
Labour's shadow schools minister - and former history teacher - Kevin Brennan said the government was giving out "mixed messages".
"History is simultaneously being boosted whilst potentially under threat.
"I sometimes wonder if, in their in their mind's eye, that is how Michael Gove and Nick Gibb see the ideal 21st century history lesson - serried ranks of schoolchildren sitting at individual desks, preferably wearing short trousers, chanting facts after their teacher and copying down the dates of the kings and queens of England from the board," he added.
Although Cannadine, who was incidentally publicising the release of his latest book 'The Right Kind of History', made well-articulated proposals for having history as a compulsory subject on the national curriculum, his argument also seemed flawed.
Cannadine argued the government should "stop tinkering" with the national curriculum as it was "not the problem", while trying to convince the auditorium it was imperative to change the syllabus to include history up to GCSE-level.
Both he and Gove argued that history does teach students how to engage with texts and learn the art of recognising there are two sides to every story. But neither of them mentioned that so do English literature and debating.
When asked later by the Huffington Post UK whether he felt studying the past was still really that important, at a time when one million young people are out of work and need skills to equip them for the future, Cannadine dismissed the question with a wave of his hand and simply replied: "Yes".
It seems maybe history doesn't provide a solid base for good articulation or argumentative skills as first thought.