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mk · 3288 days ago · link · · parent · post: 14th Irregular Occasional Give a Quote from Your Recent Reading
Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory. -Benjamin Disraeli; from an opening chapter quote in Lords of Finance, by Liaquat Ahamed I largely agree with this. Life makes more sense to me when viewed through a historical (in terms of account), rather than philosophical, lens. At least in biography, it is usually pretty clear what someone has done, and the significance is always individual.
On a related note: -John Lewis Gaddis (qtd. in When the Facts Change by Tony Judt)It would be the height of arrogance for historians to condemn those who made history for not having availed themselves of histories yet to be written, Nightmares always seem real at the time--even if, in the light of day, a little bit ridiculous.