Learning Civics from History
- sofiapbaker
- Sep 11, 2024
- 1 min read
When confronted with confusing or appalling new events—and the last few years have surely had plenty of them—the instinct of historians like myself is to look for historical parallels. Finding a good historical parallel can be alarming or consoling, but whatever the nature of the parallel, there is comfort in knowing that there is a parallel. With a good historical parallel in mind, we can get a sense of the range of possible outcomes, then investigate and assess the cures or exit strategies that leaders in the past have employed. That is what the ancients meant when they said that history was the teacher of practical wisdom. More of that in a moment.
The present period of American history reminds me of nothing so much as the middle of the fourteenth century in Europe…