“To history has been assigned the office of judging the past, of instructing the present for the benefit of future ages. To such high offices this work does not aspire: It wants only to show what actually happened.”

About Leopold von Ranke

Historian • German

Leopold von Ranke was a German historian and a founder of modern source-based history. Applying the scientific methods of philology, he was able to establish a more objective basis for historical writing. Ranke was a...