I had access to books, and I could read... but that more foundational, basic historical awareness, I didn't have any of that.
Europe's fragmentation puts the wider historical picture beyond reach.
Europeans are forever the offspring of Machiavelli, trapped in a historical rollercoaster that can bring us a monarchy-toppling French Revolution and then a few years later Napoleon Bonaparte as emperor.
Well, for me, really, I think it was I wanted to try and clear up some of the misperceptions that were out there and fill in some of the historical gaps.
One very important aspect of our contemporary musical culture - some might say the supremely important aspect - is its extension in the historical and geographical senses to a degree unknown in the past.
A stone is ingrained with geological and historical memories.
Without the meditative background that is criticism, works become isolated gestures, historical accidents, soon forgotten.
If people get inspired by 'Baahubali' as a film, and they realize they can make a big film or a historical film which has good drama and good visuals, if they realize there are good stories to tell here, then it is good.
Today, in American imperialism, the commodity has reached its most grandiose historical manifestation.
Obama's extraordinary political skills suggest he is more than capable of rising above any personal historical grudges he may have inherited.
I think if you place Jesus firmly in the historical context... you can make very educated hypotheses and guesses about how he lived.
I've been impressed, over the last 15 years, with how often the somewhat conspiratorial comments of Haitian villagers have been proven to be correct when the historical record is probed carefully.
I read numerous books - loads in fact - and, as I always do when recording a historical project, immersed myself into the subject matter. I spent many hours at Henry's old homes, such as Hampton Court, and visiting the Tower of London. I read no other books during that period.
Perhaps the most pernicious strain of contemporary criticism says one thing before it says anything else, says it to whatever historical event or cultural happenstance is supposedly at issue: 'You can't fool me.'
But we cannot just take this historical fact for granted. We must make it live.
It is a historical fact that President Bush pushed this nation into a war that had little to do with apprehending terrorists. We did not seek an impeachment of President Bush because, as an executive, he had his authority.
I should have known better. Pro-life arguments are now based on scientific evidence and the pro-choice arguments are not. That is a cultural, historical fact.
Plato wove historical fact into literary myth.
In the U.S., diversity is a politically correct slogan. In India, it is a historical fact. Much as we in the West may resent it, India has a lot to teach us when it comes to religious tolerance.
I am in the interesting position of being sometimes skimmed by the critics and called literature and sometimes called historical fiction.
