But history is neither watchmaking nor cabinet construction. It is an endeavor toward better understanding.
Marc BlochRead
The historian is, by definition, absolutely incapable of observing the facts which he examines.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Historians cannot witness events directly, making their accounts inherently subjective.
In this quote, Marc Bloch emphasizes the inherent limitations of historians, who, due to their temporal distance from the events they study, cannot observe the facts directly. Instead, historians rely on interpretations, narratives, and evidence that are influenced by their own perspectives, highlighting the subjective nature of historical inquiry.
Themes
HistorySubjectivityInterpretationEvidencePerspective
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about the nature of historical writing, you might quote Bloch to illustrate how historians work.
More from Marc Bloch
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The eyes of all America are upon us, as we play our part posterity will bless or curse us.
Henry KnoxRead
The year of my birth, 1940, was the fulcrum of America in the twentieth century, when the nation was balanced precariously between the darkness of the Great Depression on one side and the storms of war in Europe and the Pacific on the other.
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History never looks like history when you are living through it.
John W. GardnerRead
He was what I often think is a dangerous thing for a statesman to be - a student of history; and like most of those who study history, he learned from the mistakes of the past how to make new ones.
A. J. P. TaylorRead
The evil of slavery and colonialism was that these oppressions kept their victims out of history, disconnected them from the evolutionary struggle.
Shelby SteeleRead
The practical value of history is to throw the film of the past through the material projector of the present on to the screen of the future.
B. H. Liddell HartRead