{"id":134,"date":"2016-08-10T15:59:33","date_gmt":"2016-08-10T19:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/history\/?p=134"},"modified":"2025-05-22T07:14:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T11:14:39","slug":"why-the-u-s-president-needs-a-council-of-historians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/history\/2016\/08\/10\/why-the-u-s-president-needs-a-council-of-historians\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the U.S. President Needs a Council of Historians"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"color: #999999\">***<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In a new <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2016\/09\/dont-know-much-about-history\/492746\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">article<\/a> in\u00a0<em>The Atlantic<\/em>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu\/experts\/199\/graham_allison.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Graham Allison<\/a> and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu\/experts\/1420\/niall_ferguson.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Niall Ferguson<\/a>, both scholars at Harvard University, urge the president to establish a &#8220;Council of Historians,&#8221; arguing that &#8220;the\u00a0U.S. could avoid future disaster if policy makers started looking more to the past.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A key passage:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We suggest that the charter for the future Council of Historical Advisers begin with Thucydides\u2019s observation that \u201cthe events of future history \u2026 will be of the same nature\u2014or nearly so\u2014as the history of the past, so long as men are men.\u201d Although applied historians will never be clairvoyants with unclouded crystal balls, we agree with Winston Churchill: \u201cThe longer you can look back, the farther you can look forward.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2016\/09\/dont-know-much-about-history\/492746\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>, and find out more about Applied History <a href=\"http:\/\/belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu\/project\/79\/applied_history_project.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a new article in The Atlantic, Graham Allison and Niall Ferguson, both scholars at Harvard University, urge the president to establish a &#8220;Council of Historians,&#8221; arguing that &#8220;the U.S. could avoid future disaster if policy makers started looking more to the past.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><span><a class=\"more-link button text\" href=\"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/history\/2016\/08\/10\/why-the-u-s-president-needs-a-council-of-historians\/\"><span>Continue Reading <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":800,"featured_media":135,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[35698,35701,35702],"class_list":{"0":"post-134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-history-news","8":"tag-history-news","9":"tag-what-history-teaches-you","10":"tag-why-history-matters","11":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - 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