Quotes by Antony Beevor - Page 2

It is important to understand the continuing, confused fascination with the Second World War. For most of us, the great unspoken question is how would we have behaved in the face of danger and when forced to make major moral choices.
Antony Beevor / Historian
Confused
Continuing
Danger
Fascination
Second World War
Unspoken
War Great World
Behaved
Forced
World War
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I read round the subject, I make a skeleton outline, and then I start work in the relevant archives. During the marshaling of the material, I copy the material from each archive file across to the relevant chapter in the skeleton outline.
Antony Beevor / Historian
Archives
Relevant
Chapter
Copy
File
Round
Outline
Skeleton
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When I was younger I used to get my best writing done at night, but now it has to be during the day. I usually finish work at half past seven, then go back to the house to open a bottle of wine, have dinner, and then read or watch television.
Antony Beevor / Historian
Dinner
Night
Wine
Writing
Best Work Done
Bottle
Finish
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The great European dream was to diminish militant nationalism. We would all be happy Europeans together. But we are going to see the old monster of militant nationalism being awoken when people realise how little control their politicians have.
Antony Beevor / Historian
Dream
Diminish
Militant
Nationalism
People
Together
Great Together People
Be Happy
Politicians
European
Monster
Realise
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At the beginning of June 1944, the war was reaching a climax. German troops had been brutalised by the savagery of the ongoing fighting in Russia, where the Red Army was secretly preparing its vast encirclement of the Germans' Army Group Centre.
Antony Beevor / Historian
Army
Centre
Climax
June
Ongoing
Preparing
Reaching
Russia
Savagery
Troops
German
Vast
Secretly
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The vital thing for me is to integrate the history from above with the history from below because only in that way can you show the true consequences of the decisions of Hitler or Stalin or whomever on the ordinary civilians caught up in the battle.
Antony Beevor / Historian
Battle
Caught
Civilians
Decision
Ordinary
Above
Consequences
Below
Integrate
Stalin
Vital
Whomever
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Teaching the history of the British Empire links in with that of the world: for better and for worse, the Empire made us what we are, forming our national identity. A country that does not understand its own history is unlikely to respect that of others.
Antony Beevor / Historian
Respect
History
British
British Empire
Country
Identity
Links
Made
National Identity
Teaching
Unlikely
Understand
Does
Empire
Forming
National
The History Of
Worse
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In the Iraq war, for instance, so much of the information is digitized and can easily be wiped out. That will make it very hard to write accurate histories. Also, there's a much greater opportunity for suppression of information before it can even be archived.
Antony Beevor / Historian
Accurate
Greater
Instance
Iraq War
Suppression
Easily
Histories
Wiped
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School-leavers unfortunately will come away thinking the First World War consisted simply of 'going over the top' on the Western Front to slaughter in no-man's-land, when the conflict extended so much further, to the collapse of four empires and numerous civil wars.
Antony Beevor / Historian
Collapse
Conflict
Empires
First World War
Slaughter
Western
War Thinking World
Civil
Civil Wars
Wars
Extended
First World
Unfortunately
Front
Further
Numerous
World War
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It was only after five years in the army, when I was having to do a very boring job in a very boring place, that I thought: 'Why not try writing a novel?' partly out of youthful arrogance and partly because there had been a long line of writers in my mother's family.
Antony Beevor / Historian
Jobs
Army
Mother
Why Not
Writing
Family Mother Long
Long Line
Partly
Youthful
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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.
Antony Beevor / Historian
Changed
Impossible
Second World War
Statistics
Tragedy
Predict
Absorb
Enormity
Ethnic
National
Overlook
Result
Second
Survivors
Tendency
Victims
Ways
World War
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The temptation in any approaching crisis or conflict is, because people haven't got a clue what lies ahead, they're always searching into the past for some sort of pattern ... to galvanise the nation or their supporters and put themselves on a pedestal to sound Churchillian or Rooseveltian.
Antony Beevor / Historian
Clue
Conflict
Crisis
Temptation
Approaching
Always Past People
Pattern
Searching
Supporters
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At a purely practical level, history is important because it provides the basic skills needed for students to go further in sociology, politics, international relations and economics. History is also an ideal discipline for almost all careers in the law, the civil service and the private sector.
Antony Beevor / Historian
Careers
Civil Service
Discipline
International Relations
Private Sector
Skills
Sociology
Almost All
Civil
Further
Ideal
Practical
Purely
Sector
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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.
Antony Beevor / Historian
Backwards
Compulsion
Crisis
Muddle
No Idea
Notion
Time Future Past
Automatically
Future Time Past
Future Time Look
In The Past
Resemble
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Antony Beevor Quotes - Page 2

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