“We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future.” Frederick Douglass said that in a speech he delivered on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, N.Y. As a historian, I think a lot about the past. I am trained to study it, analyze it, interpret it and, if I am doing it right, I can make my work accessible to my students as well as to the broader public and hope that with some knowledge of history, people will make more informed decisions about the future. On the Fourth of Ju … (read more)
