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 course of national policy is based upon a series of assumptions, with which statesmen have lived since their earliest years and which they regard as so axiomatic as hardly to be worth stating. It is the duty of the historian to clarify these assumptions and to trace their influence upon the course of every-day policy.” – AJP Taylor, The Italian Problem in European Diplomacy, 1847-1849 (1934).

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Article of the Week 

“The Age of Invasion” – John Bew, The New Statesman, January 7, 2026.

Examining the similarities in Trump’s attack on Iran over the summer and decision to capture Nicolas Maduro in January, Bew asserts that the world has entered a “‘raw power’” era, decisively moving on from 80 years in which “‘rule-of-law’” formed a bedrock for international relations. Trump, Bew claims, is imitating William McKinley, the president who launched the Spanish-American War. In response, the UK and Europe must leverage their remaining “assets, including financial and cultural power, to have a considerable say in the shaping of international outcomes.”