On how people in the future will see our own time

People tend to use the question of "what will people think when they look back on this moment?" for one of two reasons: (a) to reflect upon how this might seem to distanced, alien eyes or (b) to gain some kind of leverage for their own viewpoint, with the idea that, in the future, people …

More thoughts on the nature of politics and accurate interpretation

I've been thinking recently about the difference between how historians tend to interpret events and how those who haven't studied historically-focused fields (history, classics, etc.) tend to approach an estimation of the same scenario. To be clear, this isn't to over-generalise one side or the other - more to consider some of the assumptions built …

On history and political commentary

Listening to an episode of The Economist Asks today, Charles Moore (Conservative journalist and now Margaret Thatcher's personal biographer) briefly brought up a point which has been on my mind for a while now. In response to a request to speculate on what her position might be today, he first wanted to make clear that the …

The Case for History as a Societal Resource

For many of us, the subject of history is most familiar as a school memory. It tends to evoke one of two things: dates and numbers to be memorised and regurgitated, or a dull list of nationally significant events. Neither, as the common opinion goes, is that compelling. Consequently, history is seen as a very …