Antony Beevor History Quotations

Teaching the history of the British Empire links in with that of the world: for better and for worse, the Empire made us what we are, forming our national identity. A country that does not understand its own history is unlikely to respect that of others.

At a purely practical level, history is important because it provides the basic skills needed for students to go further in sociology, politics, international relations and economics. History is also an ideal discipline for almost all careers in the law, the civil service and the private sector.

Of course history is easily manipulated - though that makes it even more important for us to know what actually happened.

Some novelists want to give people in history a voice because they have been denied it in the past.

I love 'Blackadder,' but history it certainly ain't.

Politicians are often tempted to deploy history as a weapon against each other.

The reason that 'Stalingrad' took off was because it emphasized the influence of history on the individual.

Entertainment history is now the main source of supposedly historical knowledge for more and more people, but 'histo-tainment' is superficial and lacks all context.

I have come across both inspiring teachers of history and deplorable ones over the years, so one cannot generalise, except perhaps to observe that the profession seems to encourage anti-militarist sentiments.

Without an understanding of history, we are politically, culturally and socially impoverished. If we sacrifice history to economic pressures or to budget cuts, we will lose a part of who we are.