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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.

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
Firsts
Capitalism
First
Already
Lenin
Right
Courses
Inevitably
Great
Course
Caused
Every
Since
Capitalist
World
State
Fought
War
Discovered
States
Discover

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No war is inevitable until it breaks out.
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Perfect soldier, perfect gentleman never gave offence to anyone not even the enemy.
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Human blunders usually do more to shape history than human wickedness.
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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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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?
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A master of improvised speech and improvised policies.
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Freedom does not always win. This is one of the bitterest lessons of history.
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American statesmen might like some Europeans more than others and even detect quaint resemblances to their own outlook but they no more committed themselves to a particular group or country than a nineteenth-century missionary committed himself to the African tribe in which he happened to find himself.
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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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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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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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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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Psychoanalysts believe that the only normal people are those who cause not trouble to either themselves or anyone else.
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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 nonconformists. If there had been no trouble-makers, no Dissenters, we should still be living in caves.
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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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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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The crusade against Communism was even more imaginary than the specter of Communism.
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If there had been no troublemakers, no Dissenters, we should still be living in caves.
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We learn nothing from history except the infinite variety of men's behaviour.
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