Hartikainen, Jouko

What to learn from historical studies of politics: the case of Three Victories and a Defeat by Brendan Simms

This case study of Brendan Simms's Three Victories and a Defeat serves as an essay on the political role of the historian. I review and evaluate the book as a tool for considering the question of what our leaders and we can learn from the past and historical research. I analyse the book in question first on its own merits; then I discuss the political role of the historian and the usefulness of the book in this regard. I also draw some wider conclusions and base my conclusions and musings on other recent writings on this vast topic. While many reviewers have noted the importance of Simms's arguments, none have done any detailed analysis of the topic, and few have explicitly proposed that the history of this era is useful for the makers of modern politics. Simms's book is just an example out of many historical works that can be educational for decision-makers.

I offer suggestions and my own about the question of historians' political participation based on my own musings and others who have either reviewed Simms's book regarding this point of view, or who have commented and written about the political role and ethical duties of the historian in more general terms. My focus here is on Europe, the USA, and the 'West' in general when I discuss the use of history to learn from the past and to aid political decision-making.

When I use Simms' book together with literature discussing the questions about history's significance to the present day and the role of the historian, I analyse these sources by comparing them with each other and my own observations. When using literature, I focus only on some of the more recent articles and ideas by historians. This is not a systematic overview of this topic or a heavy methodological analysis, but more of a primer pondering this age-old question of historians. I start this work by first discussing the book of Simms before analysing others' analysis of the book, before I go into a freer discussion about the wider themes raised by the book

Keywords: Responsibility of the Historian, Freedom of Historian, British Empire, 18th Century, American Revolutionary War, Global Order, Active Foreign Policy, Isolationism in Foreign Policy, Learning from History

Cite: Hartikainen, Jouko 2026. What to learn from historical studies of politics: the case of Three Victories and a Defeat by Brendan Simms. Holistic Science Publications, Intellectual History Archive, Finland. p.44-70. https://www.holistic-science-publications.com/i-h-archive2/