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History isn't just the story of bad people doing bad things. It's quite as much a story of people trying to do good things. But somehow, something goes wrong.

We must admit that history is enjoyable to a large extent because it enables us to pass judgement on the past.

I feel like history is about going and discovering the great human stories that just are every bit as relevant as anything that's going on today.

History is one of those marvelous and necessary illusions we have to deal with. It's one of the ways of dealing with our world with impossible generalities which we couldn't live without.

History is full of really good stories. That's the main reason I got into this racket: I want to make the argument that history is interesting.

The one challenge you have when you're going back into history is that people, unlike with today's news - we think we know what's happened already - we think that it's history and therefore less interesting.

I love history because when you strip away the social and political aspects, it's really just a bunch of fun stories.

The funny thing about history is that we imagine that people didn't laugh in the old days, but of course they did, at stupid things.

There are more people than you think who want to have a challenging experience, in which they are obliged to reflect about the past.

I've got a history in my life of difficult times.