In August last year a Forum member asked me if history can be narrated in the present tense. I replied that professional historians write history in the past tense as a matter of course, for historical accounts would sound so contrived and tacky if told in the present tense on a sustained basis.

Imagine how confusing it would be to listen to Italian history narrated in the present tense from start to finish this way: “Machiavelli falls out of favor when the Medici princes return to power and he is imprisoned on suspicion of crimes against the state…”

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