Historian Niall Ferguson to Lead Inaugural School of Public Policy Dean's Distinguished Lecture

Scottish historian and Harvard University history professor Niall Ferguson will present “Why Leaders of the Future Need to Study the Past: The Case for Applied History” at the inaugural Patricia Tagliaferri Dean's Executive Lecture Series at Pepperdine University School of Public Policy .  The event will be held at Drescher Graduate Campus in Malibu on Wednesday, March 29, from 6:30 to 8 PM.

While most graduate policy programs focus on the quantitative side of public policy, the Pepperdine School of Public Policy has understood from its founding that public leaders must consider the array of the social sciences in formulating sustainable public policy. This includes the study of history, and in this timely lecture, Ferguson will make the compelling argument that domestic and international policy failures have been founded on a misreading—if not complete ignorance—of history.

How can leaders “think historically” when making decisions? Should the president have a “Council of Historical Advisers?” Ferguson will explore these and other important questions as he examines whether those who “don't remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Ferguson is a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and a senior fellow of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University. He is also a visiting professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation Distinguished Scholar at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C.

General admission is free, and tickers are required to attend. For additional information about the lecture, and to reserve tickets, visit the School of Public Policy page on the Eventbrite website.