Quote #8

I was a narrative historian, believing more and more as I matured that the first function of the historian was to answer the child's question, 'What happened next?'

More from A. J. P. Taylor

  1. The greatest problem about old age is the fear that it may go on too long.
  2. Every historian loves the past or should do. If not, he has mistaken his vocation; but it is a short step from loving the past to regrettin…
  3. Taylor's Law states: 'The Foreign Office knows no secrets.'
  4. Conformity may give you a quiet life; it may even bring you to a University Chair. But all change in history, all advance, comes from the n…
  5. History gets thicker as it approaches recent times: more people, more events, and more books written about them. More evidence is preserved…
  6. In my opinion we learn nothing from history except the infinite variety of men's behaviour. We study it, as we listen to music or read poet…
  7. Like most of those who study history, he learned from the mistakes of the past how to make new ones.
  8. The present enables us to understand the past, not the other way round.

All A. J. P. Taylor quotes