---
title: "2 Henry Wiencek Quotes - Famous Historian"
description: "American historian... | Henry Wiencek is an American journalist, historian and editor whose work has encompassed historically significant architecture, ..."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13e/henry-wiencek-90790_ancestors_genealogy-becomes-a-mania-an-obsessive-s_308648.jpg"
---

# Henry Wiencek

(1952)   Historian

 **2** quotes in **9** categories

Rate this collection:  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★   No ratings yet

Henry Wiencek is a historian.

## Quick Facts About Henry Wiencek

Born January 1, 1952

Profession Historian

## About Henry Wiencek

American historian... \| Henry Wiencek is an American journalist, historian and editor whose work has encompassed historically significant architecture, the Founding Fathers, various topics relating to slavery, and the Lego company. In 1999, The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White, a biographical history which

##  Quotes by Henry Wiencek

> [“Genealogy becomes a mania, an obsessive struggle to penetrate the past and snatch meaning from an infinity of names. At some point…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-wiencek/genealogy-becomes-a-mania-an-obsessive-struggle-to-penetrate-the-past/)

[Henry Wiencek](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-wiencek/)

[Ancestors](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ancestors/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13e/henry-wiencek-90790_ancestors_genealogy-becomes-a-mania-an-obsessive-s_308648.jpg)

> [“Deeply reluctant to judge a Founder as wanting in moral force, modern commentators retreat to a range of adjectives such as ‘flawed,’…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-wiencek/deeply-reluctant-to-judge-a-founder-as-wanting-in-moral-force-modern/)

[Henry Wiencek](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-wiencek/)

[Character](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/character/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/800/henry-wiencek-90790_character_deeply-reluctant-to-judge-a-founder-as-w_1771646.jpg)

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "ItemList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-wiencek/#itemlist",
            "name": "Henry Wiencek Quotes",
            "numberOfItems": 2,
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“Genealogy becomes a mania, an obsessive struggle to penetrate the past and snatch meaning from an infinity of names. At some point the search becomes futile – there is nothing left to find, no meaning to be dredged out of old receipts, newspaper articles, letters, accounts of events that seemed so important fifty or seventy years ago. All that remains is the insane urge to keep looking, insane because the searcher has no idea what he seeks. What will it be? A photograph? A will? A fragment of a letter? The only way to find out is to look at everything, because it is often when the searcher has gone far beyond the border of futility that he finds the object he never knew he was looking for.”",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Henry Wiencek"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-wiencek/genealogy-becomes-a-mania-an-obsessive-struggle-to-penetrate-the-past/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13e/henry-wiencek-90790_ancestors_genealogy-becomes-a-mania-an-obsessive-s_308648.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13e/henry-wiencek-90790_ancestors_genealogy-becomes-a-mania-an-obsessive-s_308648.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13e/henry-wiencek-90790_ancestors_genealogy-becomes-a-mania-an-obsessive-s_308648.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“Genealogy becomes a mania, an obsessive struggle to penetrate the past and snatch meaning from an infinity…” — Henry Wiencek",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“Deeply reluctant to judge a Founder as wanting in moral force, modern commentators retreat to a range of adjectives such as ‘flawed,’ ‘human,’ ‘contradictory,’ ‘paradoxical,’ ‘compartmentalized,’ while preserving for [Thomas] Jefferson what [one] historian...calls ‘a fundamental core of naïve innocence.’* But at Jefferson’s core there lay a fundamental belief in the righteousness of his power. Jefferson wore racism like a suit of armor, knowing that it would always break the sharpest swords of the idealists.”",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Henry Wiencek"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-wiencek/deeply-reluctant-to-judge-a-founder-as-wanting-in-moral-force-modern/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/800/henry-wiencek-90790_character_deeply-reluctant-to-judge-a-founder-as-w_1771646.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/800/henry-wiencek-90790_character_deeply-reluctant-to-judge-a-founder-as-w_1771646.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/800/henry-wiencek-90790_character_deeply-reluctant-to-judge-a-founder-as-w_1771646.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“Deeply reluctant to judge a Founder as wanting in moral force, modern commentators retreat to a range of…” — Henry Wiencek",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "Person",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-wiencek/#person",
            "name": "Henry Wiencek",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-wiencek/",
            "description": "American historian... | Henry Wiencek is an American journalist, historian and editor whose work has encompassed historically significant architecture, the Founding Fathers, various topics relating to slavery, and the Lego company. In 1999, The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White, a biographical history which"
        },
        {
            "@type": "ProfilePage",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-wiencek/#webpage",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-wiencek/",
            "name": "Henry Wiencek",
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "mainEntity": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-wiencek/#person"
            },
            "primaryImageOfPage": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/13e/henry-wiencek-90790_ancestors_genealogy-becomes-a-mania-an-obsessive-s_308648.jpg"
            },
            "description": "American historian... | Henry Wiencek is an American journalist, historian and editor whose work has encompassed historically significant architecture, ...",
            "breadcrumb": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-wiencek/#breadcrumb"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-wiencek/#breadcrumb",
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "name": "Home",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "name": "Quotes",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "name": "Authors",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/authors/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "name": "Henry Wiencek",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-wiencek/"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "WebSite",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "Organization",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "logo": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png",
                "width": 512,
                "height": 512
            }
        }
    ]
}
```