Historian’s prerogative
There is no crisis that a shrewd profession cannot turn to its advantage. Margaret MacMillan has shown herself time and again to be a master of her art. We are taught from childhood to “learn from history or else,” and as she rightly says, we sometimes do (“The dawn after the darkest hour,” June). But what does she mean in demanding we “use it wisely”? History is not a science, subject to peer-group review. It says merely: “Trust me, I am a historian.” History has long been a banquet at which all can feast, left and right, democrat and dictator. Thus today, MacMillan feels she can already suggest that Covid-19 proves the worth of big government, dispels the “bugaboo of a deep state” and throws libertarians “on the defensive.” Suppose it “proves” the opposite? Suppose it shows the incompetence of big government institutions (as in the UK), the grotesque cost of one-size-fits-all overreaction and the validity of Sweden’s policy of mitigation and herd immunity? Suppose by then the politics of fear will have legitimised the greatest “deep state” intrusion on personal freedom in history? Just suppose. Will she write that history?