James Fallows Quotes

History is not a blueprint for present practice.

Americans treat history like a cookbook. Whenever they are uncertain what to do next, they turn to history and look up the proper recipe, invariably designated "the lesson of history.

We have need of history in its entirety, not to fall back into it, but to see if we can escape from it.

So often when we historicize material, we use this big wide-angle lens.

History is too serious to be left to historians.

History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product.

Writing history is writing the soul of the past...

History is the single discipline from the world of learning that most informs action in the world. So if you ask world leaders what guides them in making decisions about a new circumstance that they have just encountered it is usually implicitly “a little like this” or “a little like” something else that happened in the past. They use that much more than they use political science theories or economic theories. It is “what is this like that has happened in the past”.

I'm always wary of the lessons of the past. There's a lot of past out there, and you can draw whatever lessons you want.

History justifies whatever we want it to. It teaches absolutely nothing, for it contains everything and gives examples of everything.

From the very beginning, history wasn't content simply to be nostalgic fairytales; it wanted to make you think.

Like most of those who study history, he (Napoleon III) learned from the mistakes of the past how to make new ones.

But every historical statement and legitimization itself moves within a certain relation to history.

Whatever can be noted historically can be found within history.

Most of us, I think, are conscious of history swirling around outside the door, but when we're in the house, we're usually not dealing with history. We're not thinking about history.

History is nothing but gossip about the past, with the hope that it might be true.

Each age tries to form its own conception of the past. Each age writes the history of the past anew with reference to the conditions uppermost in its own time.

I think history is continuous. It doesn't begin or end on Pearl Harbor Day or the day Lyndon Johnson withdraws from the presidency or on 9/11. You have to learn from the past but not be imprisoned by it. You need to take counsel of history but never be imprisoned by it.

History is more or less bunk.

I think you can learn from history.

It's very important to always put things in their historical contexts. It teaches important lessons about the country in question.

Learning from the past helps to ensure that mistakes are not repeated.

It may be enough to study history in all its nuance and ambiguity for its own sake. But there is no country free of the need to find new ways of reading the past as an inspiring way of thinking about everything else, including the present.

I don't think you should ever run from history. You should learn from it and embrace it.

The problem of telling contemporary history is that your message gets outdated.