Applied History Project

The mission of Harvard’s Applied History Project is to revitalize applied history by promoting the production and use of historical reasoning to clarify public and private challenges and choices. Founded by Professors Graham Allison and Niall Ferguson in 2016, the Applied History Project builds upon the foundation laid by Professors Ernest May and Richard Neustadt in the 1980s, reflected in their book Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers. 

Advancing its mission, the Project sponsors the Applied History Working Group of faculty members across Harvard University to organize discussions with scholars and practitioners; supports historians and policymakers in producing Applied History; develops courses in Applied History; funds the Ernest May Fellowships in History and Policy for pre- and post-doctoral students; and holds Applied History Events open to the Harvard Community and the public. Harvard’s project is one of the leaders among a rapidly expanding network of universities and think tanks that are furthering the discipline of Applied History by clarifying predicaments and choices to inform better decisions.

The Project gratefully acknowledges the Stanton Foundation's generous support for its Applied History endeavors. 

Quote of the Week 

“We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it—and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again—and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.” – Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897)

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Article of the Week 

“General Franco: the dictator without charisma” – Victor Mallet, The Financial Times, November 27, 2025.

In searching for the reasons why dictators come to power and how they keep it—a question with applications around the world today—the story of Spain’s Francisco Franco challenges common assumptions, Mallet writes. Franco was not charismatic, acted with hesitation, and was physically uninspiring—yet he ruled for 35 years because the population was weary of war and eventually content with the postwar economy, he argues. Mallet draws from a new biography of Franco, El Generalissimo, by Giles Tremlett and a recently released autobiography by former Spanish monarch Juan Carlos.