"Historians usually focus their attention on the past of countries that still exist, writing hundreds and thousands of books on British history, French history, German history, Russian history, American history, Chinese history, Indian history, Brazilian history or whatever. Whether consciously or not, they are seeking the roots of the present, thereby putting themselves in danger of reading history backwards. As soon as great powers arise, whether the United States in the twentieth century or China in the twenty-first, the call goes out for offerings on American History or Chinese History, and siren voices sing that today’s important countries are also those whose past is most deserving of examination, that a more comprehensive spectrum of historical knowledge can be safely ignored."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe (2011)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/History_of_Germany
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
History of Germany
4 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by History of Germany →
Related Quotes
"Germany as a country has only been in existence for just over a hundred years. But in that time they've started two w…"
"There was nothing worth saving in what the Nazis built — but could any non-fanatic plausibly say that everything Germ…"
"In the study of German history, there is the notion of sonderweg, literally the “special path,” down which the German…"
"I never doubted that the victory over France must precede the restoration of the German kingdom, and if we did not su…"
"Nationalism at first had seemed to pose a threat to Europe's monarchies. In the 1860s, however, the kingdoms of Piedm…"
"The union of the States of Germany into a form of government similar in many respects to that of the American Union i…"
"We see the strongest guarantee of peace for Europe in a policy of expansion. When have we exploited the embarrassment…"
"Manifestly, in August 1914 the status quo of western Europe was about to vanish. Either the liberal democracies would…"
"From Antwerp to Baghdad there lies before us a large economic field in which German enterprise can develop. If we suc…"
"Let us...take the most concrete example of state capitalism...It is Germany. Here we have the 'last word' in modern, …"