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Bismarck fought 'necessary' wars and killed thousands, the idealists of the twentieth century fight 'just' wars and kill millions.

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
Fight
Idealist
Century
Twentieth
Millions
Fought
Fighting
Wars
War
Killed
Thousands
Kill
Bismarck
Necessary
Idealists

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Fascism was little more than terrorist rule by corrupt gangsters. Mussolini was not corrupt himself but he did nothing except to rage impotently.
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History is the great propagator of doubt.
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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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If there had been a strong democratic sentiment in Germany, Hitler would never have come to power . [Germans] deserved what they got when they went round crying for a hero.
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If there had been no troublemakers, no Dissenters, we should still be living in caves.
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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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All other forms of history - economic history, social history, psychological history, above all sociology - seem to me history with the history left out.
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A master of improvised speech and improvised policies.
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History gets thicker as it approaches recent times: more people, more events, and more books written about them. More evidence is preserved, often, one is tempted to say, too much. Decay and destruction have hardly begun their beneficent work.
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History is not a catalogue but...a convincing version of events.
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There is nothing nicer than nodding off while reading. Going fast asleep and then being woken by the crash of the book on the floor, then saying to yourself, well it doesn't matter much. An admirable feeling.
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History is not another name for the past, as many people imply. It is the name for stories about the past.
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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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A racing tipster who only reached Hitler's level of accuracy would not do well for his clients.
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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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Psychoanalysts believe that the only normal people are those who cause not trouble to either themselves or anyone else.
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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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No matter what political reasons are given for war, the underlying reason is always economic.
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The present enables us to understand the past, not the other way round.
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The greatest problem about old age is the fear that it may go on too long.
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