from Ed Husain's "The Islamist"

"...I had thought that history was a collection of facts, a factual narrative of what happened, I could not have been more wrong...One thing history was not was an idle intellectual pastime. Professor Tosh argued that the past created the present, and the pat was open to multiple interpretations...Carr disputed 'facts', and argued that we knew only what those who went before us wanted us to know. historical records do not necessarily tell us what happened, but only their authors' perception of what happened, or what they wanted others to believe had happened..."
- pp 160-61

I have mixed feelings about this book, but as a person of faith and an activist there were some unexpected resonances. (Though also, obviously, dissonances.) It isn't the best written book ever, but it seems honest. That said, I'm sure that as the author indirectly confesses above, other people following his experiences could have perceived it all quite differently.