It's the historian's job not to ridicule the myths, but to show the difference between myth and reality. — Norman Davies Copy Share Image
Our mental maps are distorted by who are the 'winners' of history and who are the powers of today. — Norman Davies Copy Share Image
Europe's fragmentation puts the wider historical picture beyond reach. — Norman Davies Copy Share Image
I do belong to the club which doesn't see a distinction between academic history and popular history. — Norman Davies Copy Share Image
Any historian worth their salt should be aware of wars, conflicts, catastrophes. They happen. This is part of the panorama. — Norman Davies Copy Share Image
There is history in condoms, there is history in lampshades, there is history in everything. — Norman Davies Copy Share Image
The idea that historians write the definitive version of something that will last for all time is less current than it used… — Norman Davies Copy Share Image
Only by painting the great panorama of history, can the great history-reading public be entertained or satisfied. — Norman Davies Copy Share Image
The historical profession is nowhere famous for its tolerance, but there are not many countries where historians can expect to pay for… — Norman Davies Copy Share Image
Each side tries to legitimize their aims by appealing to history, sometimes selectively choosing episodes and other times just by inventing history. — Norman Davies Copy Share Image
Under Lenin, hardly less than under Stalin, historians harbored critical opinions at their peril. The writing, let alone the publication, of political… — Norman Davies Copy Share Image
Historical change is like an avalanche. The starting point is a snow-covered mountainside that looks solid. All changes take place under the… — Norman Davies Copy Share Image
It's unimaginable to meet a Pole or a German who does not know about the history of their country. But lots of… — Norman Davies Copy Share Image
One might have thought that 70 years was time enough to work out what really happened in 1939. It isn't the case.… — Norman Davies Copy Share Image
“It is indeed the duty of historians to stress the contrast between the standards of the past and the standards of the… — Norman Davies Copy Share Image
Fifty years would seem to be time enough to prepare a definitive history of the Second World War. In an age of… — Norman Davies Copy Share Image
Traditionally, historians thought in terms of invasions: the Celts took over the islands, then the Romans, then the Anglo-Saxons. It now seems… — Norman Davies Copy Share Image
“Historians usually focus their attention on the past of countries that still exist, writing hundreds and thousands of books on British history,… — Norman Davies Copy Share Image
The Law and Justice government does not want a bunch of foreign historians to decide what goes on in 'their' museum. — Norman Davies Copy Share Image
History must give the Poles the principal credit for bringing the Soviet bloc to its knees. — Norman Davies Copy Share Image
All states and nations, however great, bloom for a season and are replaced. — Norman Davies Copy Share
The Law and Justice government does not want a bunch of foreign historians to decide what goes on in 'their' museum. — Norman Davies Copy Share
For people familiar with Eastern Europe, Marci Shore's 'The Taste of Ashes' is, in spite of its subject matter, delicious. A professor at Yale… — Norman Davies Copy Share
The one certainly for anyone in the path of an avalanche is this: standing still is not an option. — Norman Davies Copy Share
Young people have to learn in a cocoon filled with false optimism. Unlike their parents and grandparents, they grow up with very little sense… — Norman Davies Copy Share
Any historian worth their salt should be aware of wars, conflicts, catastrophes. They happen. This is part of the panorama. — Norman Davies Copy Share
It was in the 20th century that national sovereignty really ruled the roost, and the E.U. was formed to cure that. — Norman Davies Copy Share
“Although the rival cereals of rye, barley,oats, buckwheat and millet have continued to exist in Europe, the triumphal march of king wheat was uncontestable” — Norman Davies Copy Share
One might have thought that 70 years was time enough to work out what really happened in 1939. It isn't the case. Misunderstandings and misinformation abound. — Norman Davies Copy Share
Our mental maps are distorted by who are the 'winners' of history and who are the powers of today. — Norman Davies Copy Share
Historical change is like an avalanche. The starting point is a snow-covered mountainside that looks solid. All changes take place under the surface and… — Norman Davies Copy Share
I can just remember the blitz of Manchester, or perhaps my father's tales about the blitz of Manchester. I can remember the blackout, the… — Norman Davies Copy Share
One of the few things that can be said for certain about Europe's prehistoric peoples is that they all came from somewhere else. — Norman Davies Copy Share
