Boss 29 Selected Quotes From Antony Beevor

Boss 29 Selected Quotes From Antony Beevore

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

I get slightly obsessive about working in archives because you don't know what you're going to find. In fact, you don't know what you're looking for until you find it.

— 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 was now an imprisonable offence. I was quite shaken.

— Antony Beevor

The power of historical fiction for bad and for good can be immense in shaping consciousness of the past.

— Antony Beevor

Of course history is easily manipulated - though that makes it even more important for us to know what actually happened.

— Antony Beevor

Without an understanding of history, we are politically, culturally and socially impoverished. If we sacrifice history to economic pressures or to budget cuts, we will lose a part of who we are.

— Antony Beevor

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

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

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

When I was a child I had something called Perthes' Disease which meant I was on crutches, so I was bullied at school and all that sort of stuff.

— 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 think it's outrageous if a historian has a 'leading thought' because it means they will select their material according to their thesis.

— Antony Beevor

What is terrifying is the ability, through mass brainwashing or propaganda, to change normal human instinct, which does not necessarily contain very much hatred.

— Antony Beevor

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

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

The punishment of shaving a woman's head had biblical origins. In Europe, the practice dated back to the Dark Ages with the Visigoths.

— Antony Beevor

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

I used to write in a room overlooking the valley from where I could see too much, whether checking the sheep and alpacas or seeing the trout rise on the lake.

— 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 would we have behaved in the face of danger and when forced to make major moral choices.

— 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 any luck, I may be proved wrong.

— Antony Beevor

One has this image of the Soviet state and the Red Army as being extremely disciplined but in the first four months of 1945 their soldiers were completely out of control.

— Antony Beevor

The majority of soldiers and officers of the Soviet Army and the allied armies treated the local population humanely.

— Antony Beevor

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

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

— Antony Beevor

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

To begin impatiently is the worst mistake a writer can make.

— Antony Beevor

I expect the worst both from reviewers and sales and then, with any luck, I may be proved wrong.

— Antony Beevor

The British bombing of Caen beginning on D-Day in particular was stupid, counter-productive and above all very close to a war crime.

— Antony Beevor

I joined the Army in 1965 and served with the 11th Hussars, which I loved. The regiment was so relaxed - a salute was more like a friendly wave.

— Antony Beevor

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