Here at All About History, our mission is to make history accessible to everyone. Someone who shares this view is historian and broadcaster Janina Ramirez, who aims to make the past accessible for everyone through her work. We sat down to chat with Ramirez about her career, the challenges of being a historian in modern society and the importance of trying to access the people who have been forgotten by history.
“SOMETIMES THE STORIES FROM HISTORY ARE MORE EXCITING AND ELABORATE THAN ANYTHING YOU COULD EVER MAKE UP YOURSELF”
What made you decide to become a historian?
I didn’t decide to become a historian, really. I accidentally fell in love with research. I wanted to be a children’s author when I was 12 years old and so I loved English but I’d always been passionate about history. I had an uncle who had studied history and I wanted to follow in his footsteps. We’re PolishIrish immigrants, and he’d managed to escape the war, come to England and through his own grit and determination got a place at Oxford to read history. He was a bit of an inspiration for me but I kept parking it. I kept thinking writing is what I wanted to do. Then I went to university to study English Literature but what I realised is that I’m an absolute nerd and a bibliophile and all I want to do all day is sit in
