History consists of a corpus ascertained facts. The facts are available to the historian in documents, inscriptions and … - Edward Hallett Carr

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Every time that I write a novel I am convinced for at least two years that it is the last one, because a novel is like a child. It takes two years after its birth. You have to take care of it. It starts walking, and then speaking.

Edward Hallett Carr

History consists of a corpus ascertained facts. The facts are available to the historian in documents, inscriptions and so on, like fish in the fishmonger's slab. The historian collects them, takes them home, and cooks and serves them in whatever style appeals to him.

Corpus, Documents, Facts, Home, Style

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The facts are really not at all like fish on the fishmonger's slab. They are like fish swimming about in a vast and sometimes inaccessible ocean; and what the historian catches will depend, partly on chance, but mainly on what part of the ocean he chooses to fish in and what tackle he chooses to use - these two factors being, of course, determined by the kind of fish he wants to catch. By and large, the historian will get the kind of facts he wants. History means interpretation.

History, Mainly, Mean, Ocean, Part, Swimming

The function off the historian is neither to love the past nor to emancipate himself from the past, but to master and understand it as the key to the understanding of the present.

History, Keys, Love, Master, Past, Understanding

The facts speak only when the historian calls on them: it is he who decides to which facts to give the floor, and in what order or context

Context, Decides, Facts, Giving, Historian, Order

History in Burckhardt's words is 'the record of what one age finds worthy of note in another. ' The past is intelligible to us only in light of the present; and we can fully understand the present only in light of the past. To enable man to understand the society of the past and to increase his mastery over the society of the present is the dual function of history.

Fully, Light, Men, Past, Present, Record

Study the historian before you begin to study the facts.

Begin, Facts, Historian, Study