Living in History

Whether you think we are making history or repeating it, it’s safe to say we are living in a historic time. In this episode, Why It Matters asks three historians to weigh in on how to use the past to examine the present and make better choices for the future.

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Host
  • Gabrielle Sierra
    Director, Podcasting
Credits

Asher Ross - Supervising Producer

Markus Zakaria - Audio Producer and Sound Designer

Rafaela Siewert - Associate Podcast Producer

Episode Guests
  • Richard Haass
    President, Council on Foreign Relations
  • Margaret MacMillan
    Professor, University of Toronto
  • Annette Gordon-Reed
    Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History, Harvard Law School

Show Notes

Around the world and across the political spectrum, there is consensus that we are living in a historic time. But what kind of history? Is the world drifting toward the isolationism, economic catastrophe, and retreat from democracy that characterized the 1930s? Or are the world’s current problems a prelude to the type of global cooperation that followed World War II? Three historians examine these and other examples, and offer their insights into the use and misuse of history. 

 

From CFR

 

Teaching Notes | The World: A Brief Introduction, Richard N. Haass

 

Could the Coronavirus Pandemic Revive International Cooperation?,” Stewart M. Patrick

 

Epidemics in World History, With Frank M. Snowden,” The President’s Inbox

 

Lessons From History Series: Learning From Past Pandemics,” Sheri L. Fink, Laurie Garrett, Julie L. Gerberding, and Jeremy Greene 

 

Read More

 

The Pandemic Will Accelerate History Rather Than Reshape It,” Foreign Affairs

 

Historian puts the push to remove Confederate statues in context,” Harvard Gazette

 

Margaret MacMillan on covid-19 as a turning point in history,” Economist

 

What Historians Will See When They Look Back on the Covid-19 Pandemic of 2020,” New York Times

 

1968 and 2020: Lessons From America’s Worst Year,” Atlantic

 

What the first world war tells us about battling coronavirus,” Financial Times

 

Coronavirus Recession: It Will Be a Lot Like World War II,” Bloomberg

 

The 1619 Project,” New York Times

 

Watch or Listen

 

American Nightmare,” Today, Explained

 

The 1930s,” American Experience

 

Reconstruction: America After the Civil War, PBS

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