Why are you a historian of 19th-century Europe?

I began as a passionate medievalist, so it was a long journey to the 19th century. Once I got there, it wouldn’t let me go.

What’s the most important lesson history has taught you?

That there is always more than one perspective.

Which history book has had the greatest influence on you?

Christopher Bayly’s The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914.

What book in your field should everyone read?

Ruth Harris’ Lourdes: Body and Spirit in the Secular Age.

Which moment would you most like to go back to?

I would prefer to stay in the present, thank you.

Which historian has had the greatest influence on you?

Two historically minded ethnographers: Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Michael Herzfeld.

Which person in history would you most like to have met?

I would rather not meet the people I write about.

How many languages do you have?

I don’t count because they are all a work in progress and tend to go to sleep if not used.

What historical topic have you changed your mind on?

I used to think British history was boring. I no longer do, but that may be because it has become more interesting.

What is the most common misconception about your field?

That it is irrelevant to the present.

Who is the most underrated person in history…

Since almost everyone in history has vanished from memory, it is hard to pick an individual.

… and the most overrated?

Pablo Picasso.

What’s the most exciting field in history today?

Projects are interesting, not fields.

Is there an important historical text you have not read?

The Mahabharata.

What’s your favourite archive?

The Geheimes Staatsarchiv in Berlin.

What’s the best museum?

The Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris.

What technology has changed the world the most?

Fire.

Recommend us a historical novel...

Olga Tokarczuk’s The Books of Jacob.

... and a historical drama?

Georg Büchner’s Danton’s Death.

You can solve one historical mystery. What is it?

What is written on the missing page of Raymond Poincaré’s diary, on which he recorded his observations of the most critical phase of the July Crisis of 1914?

Chris Clark is Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge. His latest book is Revolutionary Spring: Fighting for a New World, 1848-1849 (Allen Lane, 2023).