Quote

You learn history in school, and you have a reverential feeling toward it. But by being irreverent, it feels current.

When you tell people you're in history, they give you this pained expression because that was the course they hated in high school. But history can be exciting, intellectually rigorous, and fun.

My pessimism goes to the point of suspecting the sincerity of the pessimists.

I do belong to the club which doesn't see a distinction between academic history and popular history.

I am a nationalist, and a Pan-Africanist, first and foremost. I was well grounded in history before ever taking a history course. I did not spend much formal time in school - I had to work.

I was always a very good student.

Whereas in the past optimism had been regarded as rather shallow - because 'oh well, it's just your temperament, you happen to be just a cheerful sort of person' - what I wanted to do was to establish that in fact it is the pessimists who are allowing all kinds of errors to creep into their work.