Interview

Which person in history would I most like to have met? Karl Marx. You’d have to know the right questions to ask, though.

‘Those in power tend to dictate the way history gets written.’

‘I’d like to go back to midnight on 1 January 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect.’

‘Great leaders are much less in control of events than people imagine.’

‘The more I read, the more I change my mind.’

What’s the most exciting field in history today? The history of political thought.

‘History is an illusion, as with everything that changes.’

‘I’d like to have met Baranamtara, the Queen of Lagash in the early 24th century BC.’

‘It is not the rich and seemingly powerful that make history, but the majority of humans.’

‘Looking at my native country from outside opened completely new ways of thinking.’