Applied History Project
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Faculty Director
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Co-Chair
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Faculty
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Visiting Scholar
About the 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.
Latest Analysis
The latest Applied History insights from project faculty, fellows, and affiliates.
Applied History Course
"Reasoning from the Past: Applied History and Decision Making," taught by Fredrik Logevall, provides a basis for using history as a tool for analyzing foreign, security, and scientific policy, calling attention to some common fallacies in reasoning from history and discussing ways to avoid them.
Our Work
The Applied History project sponsors events, publishes a newsletter, and supports a course at the Kennedy School to fulfill its mission of promoting the production and use of historical reasoning in policymaking.
Applied History This Week: June 30, 2025
Quote of the Week
“Study the past if you would define the future.” – Confucius
Article of the Week
“The Historical Presidency” – Ivan Krastev and Leonard Benardo, Stephen M. Walt, Donna Zuckerberg, Jan-Werner Müller, Julia Lovell and Nicholas Guyatt, Kenneth Rogoff, Samuel Moyn, Ramachandra Guha, Julian E. Zelizer, Foreign Policy, June 26, 2025.
For its summer 2025 print edition, Foreign Policy is featuring nine essays in a cover package “on what the global past reveals about our confounding present.” With questions ranging from “Is this an American Cultural Revolution?” to “Is Trump’s Use of Executive Power Really So Different?” writers address overused comparisons and evoke their own analogies from across the world and over centuries to illuminate insights into the US presidency of Donald Trump today.
Engaging Historians and Decisionmakers
Former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, in conversation with Graham Allison: "Ultimately, a real understanding of history means that we face nothing new under the sun."
Niall Ferguson, Graham Allison, and Mary Elise Sarotte at an Applied History event on "The Collapse of the Soviet Union."
Niall Ferguson gave a presentation on "The History of the Future" with Nancy Koehn at a meeting of the Applied History Working Group.
John Lewis Gaddis discussing "Grand Strategy" in a seminar with the Applied History Working Group.
Seminars
The Applied History Working Group of faculty members and affiliates across Harvard University and other institutions organizes discussions with scholars and practitioners to develop and support Applied History research and its use in policymaking.
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SeminarNathaniel L. Moir — Number One Realist: Bernard Fall and Vietnamese Revolutionary Warfare
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SeminarVictory at Sea: Paul Kennedy on How Naval Power Reshaped the World
Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students -
SeminarHal Brands — The Twilight Struggle: What the Cold War Teaches Us about Great-Power Rivalry Today
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SeminarFiona Hill — There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century
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SeminarFareed Zakaria – Lessons for Building Back Better
Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students