'Like Goering with culture, I reach for my revolver when offered philosophies of history,' wrote A.J.P. Taylor some years ago, when the 'What is History' theme was going the rounds. He likes to parade himself as a simple, practical man - 'an old-fashioned, penny-counting historian'. He thinks that history's only function is 'fun', dismisses the rest as 'sales-talk' and believes that we study history 'for pleasure, not instruction'.

LRB 22 January 1981 | PDF Download