Two days after the No Kings protests in Palo Alto against perceived rising authoritarianism, historian Niall Ferguson characterized such fears as exaggerated, calling them a “category error.” Speaking at Stanford’s POLISCI 31 speaker series, Ferguson contrasted current U.S. politics with the early years of Nazi Germany, asserting that labeling a populist, democratically elected government as fascist reflects a misunderstanding of history.
In the panel discussion, which included Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Kennedy and former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, Ferguson rejected claims of Trump’s unprecedented impact on American politics, instead linking it to a broader crisis stemming from elite universities’ failures and the inability of the establishment to confront the rise of China.
Kennedy and Spellings offered differing views on higher education, with Kennedy downplaying concerns about political correctness, while Spellings emphasized the real educational work happening at public universities and community colleges. Despite their disagreements, all panelists urged students to read more to learn history’s lessons, with Ferguson provocatively stating that society’s lack of reading contributes to its inability to understand these dynamics.
