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Hardly a pure science, history is closer to animal husbandry than it is to mathematics in that it involves selective breeding. The principal difference between the husbandryman and the historian is that the former breeds sheep or cows or such and the latter breeds (assumed) facts. The husbandryman uses his skills to enrich the future, the historian uses his to enrich the past. Both are usually up to their ankles in bullshit.
Tom Robbins
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Interpretation

What this quote means

History is shaped by selective perspectives similar to how animals are bred, with both historians and husbandrymen dealing with complexities that can obscure the truth.

In this quote, Tom Robbins emphasizes the subjective nature of history, suggesting that historians, like husbandrymen, selectively curate their materials to craft narratives. While husbandrymen seek to improve livestock for future benefit, historians reinterpret past facts to provide insight, although both professions can be mired in misleading information or biases.

Themes

HistoryInterpretationTruthFactsSubjectivity

In practice

Example use cases

During a lecture on historical accuracy, you might quote Robbins to illustrate the challenges historians face.

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The Divine was beyond description, beyond knowing, beyond comprehension. To say that the Divine was Creation divided by Destruction was as close as one could come to definition. But the puny of soul, the dull of wit, weren't content with that. They wanted to hang a face on the Divine. They went so far as to attribute petty human emotions - anger, jealousy, etc - to it, not stopping to realize that if God were a being, even a supreme being, our prayers would have bored him to death long ago.
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