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The crusade against Communism was even more imaginary than the specter of Communism.

A. J. P. Taylor

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A. J. P. Taylor
Age: 84 †
Born: 1906
Born: March 25
Died: 1990
Died: September 7
Historian
Historian Of The Modern Age
Journalist
University Teacher
Alan John Percivale Taylor
Imaginary
Communism
Even
Specter
Crusade
Crusades

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Bismarck fought 'necessary' wars and killed thousands, the idealists of the twentieth century fight 'just' wars and kill millions.
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Manchester has everything but good looks..., the only place in England which escapes our characteristic vice of snobbery.
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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 poetry, for pleasure, not for instruction.
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History is not a catalogue but...a convincing version of events.
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When I write I have no loyalty except to historical truth as I see it and care no more about British achievements and mistakes than any other.
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One of the penalties of being president of the United States is that you must subsist for four years without drinking anything except Californian wine.
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A racing tipster who only reached Hitler's level of accuracy would not do well for his clients.
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History is the great propagator of doubt.
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If there had been no troublemakers, no Dissenters, we should still be living in caves.
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The male clerk with his quill pen and copper-plate handwriting had gone for good. The female short-hand typist took his place. It was a decisive moment in women's emancipation.
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No war is inevitable until it breaks out.
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Knowledge breeds doubt, not certainty, And the more we know the more uncertain we become.
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We learn nothing from history except the infinite variety of men's behaviour.
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Human blunders usually do more to shape history than human wickedness.
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The Foreign Office knows no secrets.
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No matter what political reasons are given for war, the underlying reason is always economic.
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George VI in the conventional parlance was a Good King who sacrificed his life to his sense of duty. If we are to have monarchs it would be hard to find a better one.
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Lenin was the first to discover that capitalism 'inevitably' caused war and he discovered this only when the First World War was already being fought. Of course he was right. Since every great state was capitalist in 1914.
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The present enables us to understand the past, not the other way round.
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In 1917 European history, in the old sense, came to an end. World history began. It was the year of Lenin and Woodrow Wilson, both of whom repudiated the traditional standards of political behaviour. Both preached Utopia, Heaven on Earth. It was the moment of birth for our contemporary world.
A. J. P. Taylor