Historically Thinking

We believe that when people think historically, they are engaging in a disciplined way of thinking about the world and its past. We believe it gives thinkers a knack for recognizing nonsense; and that it cultivates not only intellectual curiosity and rigo

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Recent Episodes

Episode 264: The Persian Version

Posted May 16, 202201:14:10

Some 5,000 years ago nomadic peoples of central Asia settled on the Iranian plateau. Their descendants would be the nucleus of an extraordinary empire...

Episode 263: The Man Who Understood Democracy (Part Two)

Posted May 9, 202201:18:20

This is the second and final part of my conversation with Olivier Zunz about his new biography of Alexis de Tocqueville, The Man Who Understood Democracy,...

Episode 262: The Man Who Understood Democracy (Part One)

Posted May 2, 202201:11:42

In 1835 a young French author on the verge of publishing his first book wrote “the best thing that can happen to me is if no one read my book, and...

Episode 261: The Long Land War

Posted April 25, 202201:06:36

For most of human history, the wealthy of any given society have been those who owned land. Therefore to change concepts of property ownership has been...

Episode 260: The Making of History

Posted April 18, 202201:07:27

Richard Cohen begins his new book Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past with two particularly appropriate epigrams. First,...