Applied History Project

The mission of Harvard’s Applied History Project is to revitalize applied history by promoting the production and use of historical reasoning to clarify public and private challenges and choices. Founded by Professors Graham Allison and Niall Ferguson in 2016, the Applied History Project builds upon the foundation laid by Professors Ernest May and Richard Neustadt in the 1980s, reflected in their book Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers. 

Advancing its mission, the Project sponsors the Applied History Working Group of faculty members across Harvard University to organize discussions with scholars and practitioners; supports historians and policymakers in producing Applied History; develops courses in Applied History; funds the Ernest May Fellowships in History and Policy for pre- and post-doctoral students; and holds Applied History Events open to the Harvard Community and the public. Harvard’s project is one of the leaders among a rapidly expanding network of universities and think tanks that are furthering the discipline of Applied History by clarifying predicaments and choices to inform better decisions.

The Project gratefully acknowledges the Stanton Foundation's generous support for its Applied History endeavors. 

Quote of the Week 

“What presidents and their advisers think are innovations usually are not that at all, but rather some earlier administration’s forgotten mistakes.” – John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of Containment (1982) 

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Article of the Week 

“The ‘Nixon shock’ might help us make sense of the Trump one” – Huw van Steenis, Financial Times, April 13, 2025. 

“What will the longer-term financial consequences of Trump’s tariffs be?” Van Steenis asks. “A look back at Richard Nixon’s experience in 1971 could help.” The “Nixon shock” included removing the dollar from the gold standard and a 10% import tariff and led to “global economic instability and uncertainty.” Van Steenis argues that “As with Trump’s tariffs, Nixon’s were introduced to cudgel countries into changing the terms of trade to help reduce the US trade deficit.” The outcome for Nixon is a relevant lesson: “the need to stabilise international relations with allies helped tip the balance away from the tariffs.”