Bevan Lewis

“The first century of the plague had seen the country turned upside down. In the twilight years of Edward III it seemed that nothing could damage the greatness of the Plantagenet royal estate. But the world of the village went from impoverished claustrophobia to traumatized infection. A hundred years later, everything had been upended, courtesy of King Death.”
― Simon Schama, History of Britain: Volume 1, A

“Europeans showed in 1900 much the same confidence in the continuing success of their culture as the Chinese elite had shown in theirs a century earlier. The past, they were sure, proved them right.”
― J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of the World

“what is crucial to grasp is that the end of tsarism came about not because of the breakdown in morale in the armed forces—discipline held up remarkably well through the winter of 1916–17, despite growing war weariness—but because of acute disaffection on the home front. Politics”
― S.A. Smith, Russia in Revolution: An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928

“The source of the woes and unpleasantness that we are currently experiencing is the fact that the Communist Party consists of 10% convinced idealists who are ready to die for the idea, and 90% hangers-on without consciences, who have joined the party in order to get a position.’83”
― S.A. Smith, Russia in Revolution: An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928