8 Quotes by A.J.P. Taylor

History is not another name for the past, as many people imply. It is the name for stories about the past.

Revolutions in short are made in the name of the proletariat, not by it, and usually in countries where the proletariat hardly exists.

Increasing prosperity for the capitalists has everywhere brought with it increasing prosperity for the proletariat, instead of the increasing misery which Marx foretold. The most advanced capitalist countries are also those where the working class has the highest standard of life.

Soup kitchens were the prelude to revolution. The revolutionaries might talk about socialism, those who actually revolted wanted 'the right to work'- more capitalism, not its abolition.

Revolutions occurred in almost every European city with more than 50,000 inhabitants. The occasion for the revolutions was hunger.

Study of the past often turns into love of the past and a desire to keep it.

Marx was concerned to change society or rather, if he adhered rigidly to his system, expected society to change in the way he wanted.

On the contrary, all experience shows that revolutionaries come from those who are economically independent, not from factory workers. Very few revolutionary leaders have done manual work, and those who did soon abandoned it for political activities. The factory worker wants higher wages and better conditions, not a revolution. It is the man on his own who wants to remake society, and moreover he can happily defy those in power without economic risk.