Donald Trump’s Uses (and Abuses) of History: A Conversation with Bruce Schulman.

This week’s episode of then & now is part of an occasional series exploring the past, present, and future of U.S. foreign policy and the U.S.-led international order. Guest host Dr. Ben Zdencanovic is joined by Bruce Schulman, Professor of History at Boston University, to discuss the Trump administration’s selective use of history, especially its nods to the McKinley era’s embrace of tariffs and imperialism. President Trump’s invocation of slogans like "Make America Great Again" reflects a broader effort to revive a tried-and-true Gilded Age cultural vision, framing America as a nation betrayed by outsiders and internal dissenters. Bruce argues that Trump’s idiosyncratic historical references signal a return to an older, culturally resonant political strategy. To conclude, Bruce examines the roots and ramifications of this vision, challenging the nostalgia surrounding late 19th-century U.S. policy and its relevance today.

Bruce Schulman is the William E. Huntington Professor of History at Boston University. Bruce also directs the Institute for American Political History at Boston University. The Institute seeks to establish Boston University as a leading center for the study of America’s political past. He is also a contributor to the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Christian Science Monitor, as well as websites such as Politico and Reuters. Bruce’s teaching and research concentrate on the history of the modern United States, particularly on the relationships between politics and broader cultural change. He is currently at work on a volume for the Oxford History of the United States covering the years 1896-1929.

Ben Zdencanovic is a Postdoctoral Associate at the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. Ben is a historian of the United States in the world, domestic and international politics, and economic and social policy. He has a particular interest in the relationship between U.S. global power and the politics of redistribution and welfare state. Ben earned his doctorate with distinction from the Department of History at Yale in 2019, where his dissertation was the winner of the Edwin W. Small Prize for outstanding work in United States history. Prior to coming to UCLA, Ben was a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale Jackson School for Global Affairs and an Assistant Instructional Professor at the University of Chicago. 

Further Reading

• Time Magazine, "Tariffs Don’t Have to Make Economic Sense to Appeal to Trump Voters"