I see it as my job to try to make history to be a popular thing. The longer I keep going the less weird it will be to be a female historian.
Lucy WorsleyRead
There's a big mistake that people make with history, which is to think that people in the past were just like us, but wearing crinolines. They lived in different worlds.
Interpretation
What this quote means
People often mistakenly believe that historical figures were just like modern individuals, overlooking their unique contexts and perspectives.
Lucy Worsley's quote highlights the misconception that people from the past shared the same thoughts, feelings, and experiences as people today. While they may have similar human traits, the environments, cultures, and societal norms of their times greatly influenced their lives and decisions, thus they cannot be judged by modern standards or perspectives.
Themes
HistoryPerspectiveContextUnderstandingSociety
In practice
Example use cases
During a history class, to emphasize the importance of understanding the social context of historical events.
More from Lucy Worsley
All quotes βMy ideal viewer is an 11-year-old girl who, like me, was once reading a book by Jean Plaidy and might be in the position of deciding what to make of the world and what to do with her life.
Lucy WorsleyRead
Similar quotes
Slavery is nothing to joke about. The history of this nation's involvement with slavery is nothing to pass off in a joke.
Douglas WilderRead
There are two kinds of man: the ones who make history and the ones who endure it.
Camilo Jose CelaRead
Reconstruction is the great black hole that remains to be filled. Even experts on the Civil War don't really understand its full significance.
Ron ChernowRead
History is not a procession of illustrious people. It's about what happens to a people. Millions of anonymous people is what history is about.
James A. BaldwinRead
In Ethiopia, the black people became Christians 1700 years ago, hundreds of years before Northern Europe turned to Christianity... And here, most of the saints are black.
Henry Louis GatesRead
It is, I believe, the greatest generation any society has ever produced.
Tom BrokawRead