7 vragen aan... Peter Burke, schrijver van Ignorance
31 januari 2023Peter Burke is een Engelse cultuurhistoricus, hij wordt gezien als een van de belangrijkste historici van de renaissance. Nu in onze boekhandels: zijn nieuwe boek Ignorance, een uiterst originele geschiedenis van onwetendheid door de eeuwen heen. Zijn we echt slimmer dan onze voorouders? ‘Ignorance might seem to be a pressing contemporary problem but, as this dazzling, comprehensive book shows, it has many pasts. Only Peter Burke could have written such a deliciously knowledgeable history of ignorance.’, zegt historicus David Armitage over het boek. We stelden Burke een zevental vragen, hij beantwoordde ze in het Engels. Een tipje van de sluier: zijn favoriete Nederlandse woord is 'uitsmijter'.
N.B. Lees ook een fragment uit Ignorance.
Who is your favourite Dutch author?
Johan Huizinga.
What do you like best about Athenaeum Bookstore?
I love Athenaeum bookstore because it offers books in at least 4 languages, sometimes before they are officially published in the attractive location of Het Spui where it is easy to find a cafe and begin reading the book I just bought.
What is your favourite Dutch word?
Uitsmijter.
When you were little, what did you think you'd be when you grew up?
When I was 7, I told my mother that I wanted to be a professor of history
What was the first book you ever read?
The first book I remember reading was a mainly picture-book called Quipic the Hedgehog, but the first ‘real’ book, again when I was about 7, was Tolkien’s Hobbit.
What book do you force upon your friends?
A book I strongly recommend to friends is Miklós Bánffy’s Transylvanian trilogy
Could you pinpoint the moment you decided to start writing this book?
I decided to write the book on ignorance when several heads of state either denied that Covid was a threat or recommended ineffective remedies.
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