Historian Quotes by Antony Beevor

The memory of the Second World War hangs over Europe, an inescapable and irresistible point of reference. Historical parallels are usually misleading and dangerous.

— Antony Beevor

I believe passionately in preemptive pessimism, especially before a book comes out. I expect the worst both from reviewers and sales, and then, with…

— Antony Beevor

It is important to understand the continuing, confused fascination with the Second World War. For most of us, the great unspoken question is how…

— Antony Beevor

I was in Estonia when a professor asked me if I was aware that making any criticism of the Red Army during the war…

— Antony Beevor

“Hitler had learned nothing and had forgotten nothing.”

— Antony Beevor

The blurring of fact and fiction has great commercial potential, which is bound to be corrupting in historical terms.

— Antony Beevor

A blend of fact and fiction has been used in various forms since the dawn of creative writing, starting with sagas and epic poems.

— Antony Beevor

When my first novel was published, I went in great excitement round bookshops in central London to see if they had stocked it.

— Antony Beevor

I feel slightly uneasy at the way historians are consulted as if history is going to repeat itself. It never does.

— Antony Beevor

I'm often reassured in a bizarre - perhaps perverse - way when I find in the archive stuff that contradicts what my assumptions have…

— Antony Beevor

The duty of a historian is simply to understand and then convey that understanding, no more than that.

— Antony Beevor

I love 'Blackadder,' but history it certainly ain't.

— Antony Beevor