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 

“Our record must be judged against the tasks and the turmoil of the times ... and not merely through the trick binoculars of hindsight—which make all things easy, and all men wise.” - John F. Kennedy 

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Article of the Week 

“What the Iraq Wars Tell Us About the Conflict in Iran” – Sir Lawrence Freedman, Bloomberg, March 13, 2026. 

Reviewing the history of Iraq’s wars with Iran in 1980 and the US in both 1991 and 2003, Freedman argues that regimes are hard to topple, ensuring their replacement by a better alternative is even more challenging, and intervening without full commitment of ground forces “forfeits control over the outcome” entirely. Just as Saddam "portrayed survival as victory” in 1991, the survival of Iran’s regime will make Trump’s operation “look like a failure,” Freedman warns. And, staffed by hardliners who maintain sufficient “firepower to control the streets” of Tehran against potential protestors, “the remaining elements of the Iranian regime will be hard to prise from power.”