The challenge for a nonfiction writer is to achieve a poetic precision using the documents of truth but somehow to make people and places spring to life as if the reader was in their presence.
Simon SchamaRead
There are some places where history just grabs you by the jugular. This is one of them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Certain locations have a profound historical significance that impacts us deeply.
In this quote, Simon Schama emphasizes the emotional and visceral connection that certain historical sites and moments can evoke in individuals. These places become almost palpable with the weight of their past, capturing the essence of historical events that shaped societies, and can elicit strong emotional reactions from those who experience them.
Themes
HistorySignificanceEmotionPlacesPast
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on historical events, this quote can be introduced to emphasize the importance of historical locations.
More from Simon Schama
All quotes βIn its Greek origins, historia meant inquiry, and from Thucydides onwards, the past has been studied to understand its connections with the present.
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Jewish history turns out not to be an either/or story - as in, either pure Judaism detached from its surroundings or else assimilation - but rather, for the vast majority, the adventure of living in between.
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I understood when I was quite small that there were two special things about the Jews. That we'd endured for over 3,000 years despite everything that had been thrown at us, and that we had an extraordinarily dramatic story to tell.
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History is admirably dangerous. It is not the soft option. Teachers need to be grown up and brave. Sensitivity is fine, but it stops at the door of honest narrative.
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History gives you insight of the same quality of truth as poetry or philosophy or a novel.
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