![]() It took some ingenuity to recreate what people in the past thought so important that it went without saying. The history of home hides in plain sight. Diarists and letter-writers often only felt moved to comment at times of crisis. House, home and domestic life are so fundamental as to be almost invisible. Not that writing the history of private life is especially easy. Why should historians leave questions of character and choices, dilemmas and drama to the novelist? We are trained to recreate past ways of thinking and feeling. The task of the historian is to breathe life into them once more. Stories and feelings are the heartbeat of the past - for the long-dead were once as vital as us, and their complexities just as vivid. I am fascinated by how people lived their day-to-day lives, their secret struggles and their longings. ![]() ![]() The importance of the past lies as much in the history of relationships and private rituals as in public institutions like universities and parliament.
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