A. J. P. Taylor

Quotes

• “Every historian loves the past or should do. If not, he has mistaken his vocation; but it is a short step from loving the past to regretting that it has ever changed. Conservatism is our greatest trade-risk; and we run psychoanalysts close in the belief that the only "normal" people are those who cause no trouble either to themselves or anybody else.”
• “Conformity may give you a quiet life; it may even bring you to a University Chair. But all change in history, all advance, comes from the nonconformists. If there had been no trouble-makers, no Dissenters, we should still be living in caves.”
• “In my opinion we learn nothing from history except the infinite variety of men’s behaviour. We study it, as we listen to music or read poetry, for pleasure, not for instruction”
• “The present enables us to understand the past, not the other way round.”
• “The worker is by nature less imaginative, more level-headed than the capitalist. This is what prevents his becoming one. He is content with small gains. Trade Union officials think about the petty cash; the employer speculates in millions. You can see the difference in their representative institutions. There is no scheme too wild, no rumour too absurd, to be without repercussions on the Stock Exchange. The public house is the home of common sense.”
• “American statesmen might like some Europeans more than others and even detect quaint resemblances to their own outlook; but they no more committed themselves to a particular group or country than a nineteenth-century missionary committed himself to the African tribe in which he happened to find himself.”

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Key facts

Born

Alan John Percivale Taylor , ( 1906-03-25 ) 25 March 1906, Southport , Lancashire , England

Died

7 September 1990 (1990-09-07) (aged 84), London , England

Alma mater

Oriel College, Oxford

Occupation

Historian

Years active

1927–1990

Spouses

Margaret Adams ​ ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1931 ; divorced</span>"}]]}'>div. 1951 ) ​ Eve Crosland ​ ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1951 ; divorced</span>"}]]}'>div. 1974 ) ​ Éva Haraszti ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1976 ) ​

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Key dates

Born

25 March 1906

Died

7 September 1990

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Wikidata facts

Instance of

human

Family name

Taylor

Gender

male

Citizenship

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

Place of birth

Birkdale

Place of death

London

Occupation

historian

Educated at

University of Oxford

Employer

Victoria University of Manchester

Political party

Labour Party

Languages spoken

English language

Award

Fellow of the British Academy

Doctoral student

Paul Kennedy

Conflict

World War II

Image

Photo of AJP Taylor on dust jacket of Bismarck The Man and the Statesman.jpg

via Wikidata · CC0