Jeremy D. Popkin > Quotes

“Fearing that the king would try to quash their decisions, the deputies held an emergency session in the only building they could find that was large enough to accommodate them, the king’s indoor tennis court. There, they swore the dramatic “Oath of the Tennis Court,” pledging not to cease meeting until they had given France a new constitution.”
― Jeremy D. Popkin, A Short History of the French Revolution

“Although history is concerned with the past, it is conducted in the present.”
― Jeremy D. Popkin, From Herodotus to H-Net: The Story of Historiography

“The most extravagant idea that can arise in the head of a politician is to believe that it is enough for a people to enter a foreign territory with military force to get them to adopt our laws and our constitution. No one likes armed missionaries,”
― Jeremy D. Popkin, A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution

“Courses in historiography confront students with the possibility that history, like literature, is about stories and that it necessarily involves philosophical questions, such as how we can actually come to know things.”
― Jeremy D. Popkin, From Herodotus to H-Net: The Story of Historiography

“actions inevitably have unintended consequences.”
― Jeremy D. Popkin, A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution

“The most famous answer to the question, “What is a sans-culotte?” defined him as “a being who always goes on foot, who has no millions… and who lives simply on the fourth or fifth story with his wife and children, if he has any. He is useful, because he knows how to plow a field, to work a forge, a saw, a file, to cover a roof, make shoes and give the last drop of his blood for the Republic.”
― Jeremy D. Popkin, A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution