Subratllar llibres sempre m’ha agradat.
“The Pursuit of History” de John Tosh (1984) és un dels meus llibres més subratllats perquè tots els temes que tracta (materials primaris, fonts, principals temes, escriptura i interpretació, límits del coneixement històric, teories, història oral, mètodes quantitatius…) m’interessen molt.
El primer capítol “The Uses of History” és el que té més subratllats i aquests en són uns quants.

· To know about the past is to know that things have not always been as they are now, and by implication that they need not remain the same in the future.
· Yet if history has always ministered to authority, it has also been many times enlisted in the cause of dissent and rebellion.
· (…) history does not repeat itself.
· Comparisons across time do not provide a blueprint for acting, but they add depth and range to our understanding of the present.
· Historical knowledge provides the basis not for categorical predictions, but for projections into the future of social, political or economic trends which provide a vital insight into the conditions in which future acting will unfold.
· One of the most valuable “lessons” which history teaches, then, is the sense of what is durable and what is transient or contingent in our present condition.
· Myth-making about the past, however desirable the end it may serve, is incompatible with learning from the past. (…) myths flourish when historical knowledge is superficial and no alternative perspective is freely available.
· Our priorities in the present should determine the questions we ask of the past but not the answers.