Antony Beevor Quotes
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When we dwell on the enormity of the Second World War and its victims, we try to absorb all those statistics of national and ethnic tragedy. But, as a result, there is a tendency to overlook the way the war changed even the survivors' lives in ways impossible to predict.
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It is this compulsion to look backwards at a time of crisis because one's got no idea of what lies ahead. There is a notion of security that somehow it must resemble the past. It's never going to. Just because we muddled through in the past doesn't mean we can automatically muddle through in the future.
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I was in Estonia when a professor asked me if I was aware that making any criticism of the Red Army during the war was now an imprisonable offence. I was quite shaken.
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In my library/study/barn, there is a Ping-Pong table on which I can pile working books and spread maps.
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If you smash a city when you're trying to capture it, you actually end up providing the perfect terrain for the defenders while blocking the access for your own armoured vehicles.
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I believe passionately in preemptive pessimism, especially before a book comes out. I expect the worst both from reviewers and sales, and then, with any luck, I may be proved wrong.
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To begin impatiently is the worst mistake a writer can make.
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Historical truth and the marketing needs of the movie and television industry remain fundamentally incompatible.
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What is terrifying is the ability, through mass brainwashing or propaganda, to change normal human instinct, which does not necessarily contain very much hatred.
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The power of historical fiction for bad and for good can be immense in shaping consciousness of the past.
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I think it's outrageous if a historian has a 'leading thought' because it means they will select their material according to their thesis.
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Alpacas are very endearing, and they all have very different personalities.
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I have come across both inspiring teachers of history and deplorable ones over the years, so one cannot generalise, except perhaps to observe that the profession seems to encourage anti-militarist sentiments.