2026 Essays

Academics, Chroniclers, and the Writing of Political History

John, Richard R.

In June 2025, at the request of the eminent historian of U.S. institutions Donald T. Critchlow, I participated in a plenary session at the biennial meeting of the Policy History Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. The topic of our panel was “Does Political History Have a Future?” My contribution to this forum is below. It has been revised to make it suitable for publication. My angle of vision is that of a historian of the United States who continues to believe in the Enlightenment ideals that have inspired the nation’s democratic experiment at a moment in the history of the republic in which these ideals have been challenged by the course of events and the pronouncements of elected officials.