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 

“The only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know.” – Harry S. Truman, quoted in Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S Truman (1974) 

(More Quotes ») 

Article of the Week 

“‘The Return of the Great Powers’ and ‘The Coming Storm’: Old Divisions Renewed” by Robert D. Kaplan (Distinguished Senior Lecturer, UT Austin's School of Civic Leadership) in The Wall Street Journal 

Kaplan reviews two recent additions to the Applied Historian's bookshelf: Brendan Simms's The Return of the Great Powers and Odd Arne Westad's The Coming Storm. The books are linked by their unsentimental treatment of war, peace, and power, Kaplan argues. For Simms, he writes, great power status is predicated on cold hard metrics about demographics, nuclear weapon arsenals, economic heft, and military reach rather than soft power. Kaplan applauds Westad's big idea: the "highest morality" in political decision-making has to do with preventing war between these great powers. Kaplan endorses the similarities between today's geopolitics and those of the pre-WWI era, as Westad details, but notes that modern realities such as social media and AI further compress decision time and shape strategy.