British Historian A. J. P. Taylor speaks to Mavis Nicholson about his life and beliefs. Recorded: 15/01/1979 If you would like to license a clip from this video please e mail: archive@fremantle.com Quote: 20509
There is a proverb that says: History is written by the victors, but the historian A.J.P. Taylor did not adopt the traditional method of writing history. Rather, he adopted the analytical and neutral method in writing the historical events, relying on a large number of various sources in order for the reader to understand those events more clearly.
'There is a proverb that says: History is written by the victors...' - which is of course completely absurd. History is written by historians. I have read histories of WW1 and WW2 written by Germans, histories of the Spanish Civil War written by historiasnw who opposed Franco, and so on. Only the ignorant repeat that saying.
Just started re-reading his autobiography, I bought years ago. a real pleasure. He had a v good memory, claiming he could recount every holiday he had ever been on since 1908, with dates & places! I don't think we are related, though we share the same name!
My book, Butterfly in the Well, has a little tribute to this wonderfully imaginative and witty writer, it is called AJP tailored. Other interpretations, Archibald James Potter, Abraham John Pilkington. Taylor defined historical writing better than anyone has, which is his most important contribution to the field of history, write history like him and you write something worth reading.
O yes! Well he is a terribly tiny person, and so one assumes he is forced to be vain by Darwin's Law of survival of the whatever the thing that makes you survive long on is in Darwin.