You may consider this appeal itself divisive and unjustified, but do internalize that many fine, patriotic and responsible ...

Resilience, not ease, has been the defining feature of our national story. As America prepares to celebrate its 250th ...

I’m on a text chain with my 3 brothers and all our sons. All of us are liberal arts majors, mostly history. I dare say we Smiths are a bit contrarian. It’s our knowledge of history and learning the ...

Answers to the question about the lessons of history generally oscillate between two extremes. One is summed up in the 1905 aphorism of the Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana: “Those who ...

The Scottish poet, novelist, and historian Andrew Lang once quipped that politicians use statistics the way a drunkard uses a lamppost: “for support rather than illumination.” Indeed, the same line ...

As a historian working in professional military education, I find myself in the awkward position of warning strategists and students alike against drawing too many lessons from history. As quick ...

History, the study of documented events and change over time, is at its foundation the study of people—singularly and collectively, with their shared and conflicting natures, choices, attitudes and ...

Like the super-majority of Americans, I'm directly related to a family of immigrants. As is true for so many millions of my fellow Americans, what motivated my grandparents to leave their native ...

We can’t change history, but we can learn from it. As a rule, professional historians are loath to draw explicit lessons from the past. We leave that to popularizers and to figures like Lord Acton or ...

The resurgence of inflation in the United States has roused political concern and stirred the Federal Reserve to pivot from patience to seemingly urgent action. Higher inflation has also led to ...

S+B: Historians have, well, historically been content to leave current events to journalists. But you spend a lot of time writing, teaching, and thinking about what is happening now. How do you ...