"The past was neither as good nor as bad as we suppose: it was just different. If we tell ourselves nostalgic stories, we shall never engage the problems that face us in the present—and the same is true if we fondly suppose that our own world is better in every way. The past really is another country: we cannot go back. However, there is something worse than idealizing the past—or presenting it to ourselves and our children as a chamber of horrors: forgetting it."
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Historians from EnglandEssayists from EnglandJews from the United KingdomUniversity of Cambridge facultyEducators from England
Original Language: English
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Ch. 2 : The World We Have Lost
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tony_Judt
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Tony Judt
Tony Robert Judt (2 January 1948 – 6 August 2010) was a British historian, essayist, and university professor who specialized in European history.
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