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the thing about "applied history" is that it isn& #39;t a hammer, and nothing is a nail.
history in general should teach you just as much, if not more, about the importance of contingency, the breaking of patterns, than the continuities/similarities (imho)
if you want to use history to think about the present, look at the differences more than the similarities, seems counterintuitive but it& #39;s not.
in simpler words: no america isn& #39;t falling just like rome did.
the notion: "america hasn& #39;t changed at all since 1968" doesn& #39;t help you think about how to foster change today, it actually means you subscribe to a whiggish idea of progress - and that& #39;s not how change or history happens
if you want to think about positive change: think about how many more thousands of people today (still not enough) know more about malcolm x than they did when he was alive. we have steadily erased the stigma from his words and beliefs - and that has contributed massively to BLM.
negative change: even when MLK was alive and ever since - americans have steadily whitewashed his words and legacy in an attempt to delegitimatise Black activism.
