Having established the limits beyond which partisanship ceases to be scientifically legitimate, let me argue the case in favour of legitimate partisa… - Eric Hobsbawm

The tragedy of the October revolution was precisely that it could only produce its kind of ruthless, brutal, command socialism.

Surrealism was a genuine addition to the repertoire of avant-garde arts, its novelty attested by the ability to produce shock, incomprehension, or what amounted to the same thing, a sometimes, embarrassed laughter, even among the older avant-garde.

I think the programme, for the history of mentalities, is not so much discovery as analysis. What I would like to do is not simply, like Edward Thompson, to save the stockinger and the peasant, but also the nobleman and the king of the past, from the condescension of modern historians who think they know better, who think they know what is logical and theoretical argument.