Only his friend Simon Schama, a trained historian who masquerades as a journalist, has managed the feat.

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To some it hit the rhetorical heights of Cicero (Simon Schama, a historian, in the Financial Times).

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He appointed the historian Simon Schama to advise on history in the curriculum review which is currently taking place.

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Simon Schama interviews Bill Clinton in the Financial Times and oh boy, does Bill fail the green jobs test.

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Well-respected academics like Sir Norman Davies and Simon Schama have swapped the safety of narrow monographs for grand sweeps across the centuries.

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Ben Franklin should have had an agent In his Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, Simon Schama recounts how merchants of the 18th century exploited Benjamin Franklin's fame, slapping his face on inkwells, porcelain, even dolls, without his permission.

FORBES: Sidelines