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Gideon Rose is the Mary and David Boies distinguished fellow in U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously, he was Editor of Foreign Affairs from 2010 to 2021, prior to which he was Managing Editor from 2000 to 2010. He has also served as Associate Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council and Deputy Director of National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and has taught American foreign policy at Princeton and Columbia. He is the author of How Wars End (Simon & Schuster, October 2010).
Featured
Many of the supposedly unprecedented features of contemporary politics have familiar echoes in earlier American history, and so the best mirror in which to see our present moment clearly could be our own past. This is the first in a series of posts putting current American politics in historical perspective, beginning with the 1790s.
The connection between the rise of social media and the decline of American politics and society seems obvious. But what if what everybody knows is wrong?
The problem of fake news has been with us from the beginning of the Republic, and American democracy was even worse at dealing with it then than it is now.
Fifty years ago, Republicans turned on President Richard Nixon. Today, most of the party continues to stand by Trump. Why the difference? A rise in partisanship.
It is only natural to look for historical patterns and seek guidance from the past. But it turns out that not only is the past itself in dispute, the whole notion of historical patterns is a mirage.