This post consists of snippets of wisdom from What is History? by E.H. Carr, that I put out on Twitter over the past few months as I read the book in fits and starts through that period. It is not intended as a review, but does highlight some notable passages and themes, some that I agree with, some that would make for good conversation primer in a class. For people interested in the “meta” aspect of history, it is well worth reading.
When [reading] a work of history, always listen for buzzing. If you can detect none either you are tone deaf or your historian is a dull dog
— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) August 21, 2017
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Facts are not at all like fish on the fishmonger's slab. They are like fish swimming about in a vast and sometimes inaccessible ocean.
— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) August 21, 2017
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[History] is a continuous process of interaction between the historian and his facts, an unending dialogue between the present and the past.
— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) August 21, 2017
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"The cult of individualism is one of the most pervasive of modern historical myths" – E.H. Carr "What is History?"
— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) August 30, 2017
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The knowledge of the historian is not his exclusive possession: many generations & of many countries have participated in accumulating it
— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) August 30, 2017
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"Great history is written precisely when the historian's vision of the past is illuminated by insights into the problems of the present."
— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) August 30, 2017
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"desire to postulate individual genius as the creative force in history is characteristic of primitive stages of historical consciousness"
— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) September 10, 2017
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"To…understand the society of the past and to increase…mastery over the society of the present is the dual function of history."
— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) September 10, 2017
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"The past is intelligible to us only in the light of the present; and we can fully understand the present only in light of the past."
— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) September 10, 2017
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"The imaginary antithesis between a society and the individual is no more than a red herring drawn across our path to confuse our thinking"
— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) September 10, 2017
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"No society is full homogeneous. Every society is an arena of social conflicts"
E.H. Carr "What is History?"— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) September 10, 2017
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"[The Historian] is not required to remain…impartial between, say, oriental despotism and the institutions of Periclean Athens." E.H. Carr
— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) September 17, 2017
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"History…in this university is sometimes thought of as a catch-all for those who find classics too difficult and science too serious."
— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) September 17, 2017
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"One impression which I hope to convey…is that history is a far more difficult subject than Classics, and quite as serious as any science"
— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) September 17, 2017
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“The line of demarcation between prehistoric and historical times is crossed when people cease to live only in the present…” EH Carr
— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) October 7, 2017
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"It may very well happen that what seems for one group a period of decline may seem to another the birth of a new advance." E.H. Carr
— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) October 8, 2017
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"Progress does not and cannot mean equal and simultaneous progress for all." Carr, What is History?
— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) October 8, 2017
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"Has not the evolution of man as a social being lagged fatally behind the progress of technology?" E.H. Carr, What is History?
— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) October 8, 2017
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We live in an epoch when—not for the first time in history—predictions of world catastrophe are in the air and weigh heavily on all —EH Carr
— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) October 8, 2017
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“What we have learned of the techniques and potentialities of mass propaganda cannot be simply obliterated” EH Carr What is History?
— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) October 9, 2017
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“Progress in human affairs…” and fundamental challenges. EH Carr, What is History? pic.twitter.com/91oY0obPdP
— Joshua Nudell (@jpnudell) October 9, 2017
Noodlings 
I feel like history is a mix of facts, propaganda, and speculation.
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