“Written history may, in the course of its narrative, use some of the laws established by the various sciences, but its own task remains that of relating the essential sequence of historical action and, qua history, to tell what happened, not why.”
Source: Foundations of Psychohistory (1982), Ch. 2, The Independence of Psychohistory, p. 85.
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Lloyd deMause 20
American thinker 1931Related quotes

“History isn't what happened, history is just what historians tell us.”
Source: A History of the World in 10½ Chapters

Other Inquisitions (1952), The Modesty of History
Context: I have suspected that history, real history, is more modest and that its essential dates may be, for a long time, secret. A Chinese prose writer has observed that the unicorn, because of its own anomaly, will pass unnoticed. Our eyes see what they are accustomed to seeing. Tacitus did not perceive the Crucifixion, although his book recorded it.

As quoted in The New York Times (27 May 1984)

Leadership & Success quotes, http://www.sheikhmohammed.co.ae/vgn-ext-templating/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=d2778960a5a11310VgnVCM1000004d64a8c0RCRD&appInstanceName=default, sheikhmohammed.ae.

Foreword, Brother to Dragons: A Tale in Verse and Voices — A New Version (1979)