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Historiography and Fairness
- Duncan reads multiple historical perspectives to understand events fully and identify shared truths across interpretations.
- Fair history requires empathy to grasp motivations even of disliked figures, avoiding simplistic good/bad dichotomies.
Great Blunderer Over Great Man
- Duncan rejects teleological history and believes in contingent, often mistake-driven events shaping outcomes.
- He favors a "great blunderer" theory over "great man" theory, emphasizing human error in history.
Revolutionaries Playing To Audience
- The French Revolution’s theatrical public assemblies fostered performative politics rather than genuine lawmaking.
- Modern legislatures risk similar decline, with social media-driven politics prioritizing spectacle over substance.