I went into journalism in a grandiose way. I thought maybe I'd do a little journalism whilst I write the great novel of all time you see -- one has to keep oneself afloat. — Neal Ascherson Copy Share Image
It was a real revolution. But with one missing feature. That is the feeling in a people that "We have done it once, and if the new lot let us down, we can do it again!" It was that proud, menacing confidence which made the French revolution special. But it's not around in 21st-century Europe. After 1989, the people handed… — Neal Ascherson Copy Share
History--the product, not the raw material--is a bottle with a label. For many years now, the emphasis of historical discussion has been laid upon the label (its iconography, its target-group of customers) and upon the interesting problems of manufacturing bottle-glass. The contents, on the other hand, are tasted in a knowing, perfunctory way and then spat out again. Only amateurs… — Neal Ascherson Copy Share
Who invented political tolerance? The English invented it, it's something which has taken roots with some difficulty in Scottish politics. — Neal Ascherson Copy Share Image
The way that words mutate reminds me of fashions in music. The word--the note--is a constant. But the setting and chord in which it… — Neal Ascherson Copy Share Image
Well, if there is a spectrum between ethnic and civic forms of nationalism, which is a rather schematic way of looking at it, all… — Neal Ascherson Copy Share Image
Broadly speaking, most people lived their lives in a kind of unwilling conformity. The thing was that they were offered, as time went by,… — Neal Ascherson Copy Share Image
But the people did get it. They had lost something -- not exactly their fear, but their patience. Suddenly it seemed unbearable to go… — Neal Ascherson Copy Share Image
In Moscow, dim and green under the summer rain, columns of armour were waiting in the side-roads off the long avenue from Vnukovo airport.… — Neal Ascherson Copy Share Image
“To be defeated, but not to give in, is victory. - Jósef Piłsudski” — Neal Ascherson Copy Share Image
When Tony Benn became a minister in the 1960s -- and I think this must be apocryphal -- he had a huge map of… — Neal Ascherson Copy Share Image
