History for Future Policymakers

Leaders often invoke the lessons of history, but rarely talk about anything more than a few familiar episodes. Even if we can all agree that we should avoid another economic depression, and try not to get dragged into another war in Vietnam, do these analogies actually help us make decisions about the future? In this course, students will explore both the problems and the opportunities presented by using historical analysis to grapple with present and future challenges. They will develop a deeper understanding of the most often cited historical episodes, but also learn how to avoid using analogies in the place of more original thinking. That means developing all the critical tools and concepts of historical analysis, such as an attentiveness to continuity and change, contingency and inevitability, human agency and structural constraints. Students will also learn how NOT to think like a historian, such as using history like a weapon, and assuming present trends will continue indefinitely into the future. Knowing history, we will not be condemned to repeat it. Instead, we can make new and more original mistakes.