In the early nineteenth century, with Enlightenment optimism soured by years of war and revolution, critics were skeptical of America's naive faith that it had reinvented politics. Simon Schama More Quotes by Simon Schama More Quotes From Simon Schama Great art has dreadful manners. The greatest paintings grab you in a headlock, rough up your composure, and then proceed in short order to re-arrange your reality. Simon Schama orderrealityart Charlie Hebdo: Satire was the father of true political freedom, born in the 18th century; the scourge of bigots and tyrants. Sing its praises. Simon Schama charlie-hebdotyrantsfather Histories never conclude; they just pause their prose. Their stories are, if they are truthful, untidy affairs, resistant to windings-up and sortings-out. They beat raggedly on into the future. Simon Schama sorting-outtruthfulstories Landscapes are culture before they are nature; constructs of the imagination projected onto wood and water and rock. It is... difficult to think of a single natural system that has not, for better or worse, been substantially modified by human culture. The cultural habits of humanity have always made room for the sacredness of nature. Simon Schama animalfunnythinking Even for the most excitable preacher, there was nothing inherently sinful about a waffle. Simon Schama wafflespreacher From 1789, perhaps even before that, it had been the willingness of politicians to exploit either the threat or the fact of violence that had given them the power to challenge constituted authority. Bloodshed was not the unfortunate by product of revolution, it was the source of energy. Simon Schama revolutionviolencechallenges What can art really do in the face of atrocity? Simon Schama atrocitiesfacesart Nations don't start out. There is not a particular moment when they unveil the essence of themselves. They are always a work in progress. Simon Schama progressmomentsessence The irony about Charles II is not that he came to the throne because England needed a successor to Charles I, but because England needed a successor to Oliver Cromwell. Simon Schama thronesenglandhistory Almost everywhere else in Europe, the more military the state, the stronger the king - except in Britain. Here it was parliament, not the monarchy, who signed the cheques. The longer the war went on, the stronger parliament became, as the purse on which it sat grew bigger and bigger. Simon Schama militarykingswar The way history is currently taught in schools, jumping from Hitler to the Henrys, is like a nightmare vision of Star Wars, where you have episode four before you have episode one. The sense of going on a journey, of chronology and continuity, is incredibly important to the imagination. Simon Schama starswarschool These men were very much in the minority, but of course, being the 'Elect', they expected to be in a minority - the party of redemption. In fact they glorified in the slightness of their numbers, the self-purifying troop of Gideon's army... stormtroopers in the front line of the Reformation. Simon Schama armypartymen The great theme of modern British history is the fate of freedom. The 18th century inherits, after the Civil War, this very peculiar political animal. It's not a democracy, but it's not a tyranny. It's not like the rest of the world, the rest of Europe. There is a parliament, laws have to be made, elections are made. Simon Schama fateanimalwar The older I get, the more I want to do. It beats death, decay or golf in unfortunate trousers. Peace and quiet depress me. Simon Schama decaydepressinggolf But it struck me that the extreme violence and cruelty of the English Civil War had gone understated. Simon Schama violencegonewar In America, much foreign policy seems contrived to be an exercise in political theory with no attention to history whatsoever. Yet there's a great reverence for history - though it's history as thumb-sucking, security blanket-nibbling self-congratulation. Simon Schama congratulationsselfexercise There are some places where history just grabs you by the jugular. This is one of them. Simon Schama civil-warwarhistory Taxation, the very thing that had triggered the British civil wars, would do so again, this time in America. The taxes may have been different, but the result would once again be disaster. What happened in America was really round two of those wars - the civil war of the British Empire, with the Hanoverians playing the part of the Stuarts, and the Americans the heirs of the revolutionaries, of Cromwell and of William III, the inheritors of a true British liberty, that had somehow got lost in its own motherland. Simon Schama wartwoamerica In the end, history, especially British history with its succession of thrilling illuminations, should be, as all her most accomplished narrators have promised, not just instruction but pleasure. Simon Schama narratorsilluminationhistory Historians are left forever chasing shadows, painfully aware of their inability ever to reconstruct a dead world in its completeness however thorough or revealing their documentation. We are doomed to be forever hailing someone who has just gone around the corner and out of earshot. Simon Schama inabilityshadowforever
