Not Dead Yet Walter Russell Mead
76 snips
Apr 28, 2026 
Walter Russell Mead, historian and foreign-policy thinker and Alexander Hamilton Professor of Strategy and Statecraft, discusses history and grand strategy. He maps America’s four foreign-policy traditions and contrasts Whig and Jacksonian politics. Conversations cover tech firms, IP, geopolitics, Iran’s future, and how education and leadership shape national direction.
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Why History Trains Better Judgment
- History and literature are the primary places to find wisdom about human nature and decision making.
- Ben Sasse argues history reveals enduring patterns that help identify unchanging forces across disciplines, useful for leaders and policymakers.
Year in Britain Shaped His Intellectual Roots
- Walter Russell Mead recounts spending a formative year in the UK at age 11 that exposed him to rigorous classical schooling.
- That year gave him Latin, French, algebra and an intense English history course that expanded his sense of what a good education looks like.
Humanities Training Prioritizes Novelty Over Love
- Modern humanities PhD training narrows scholars into specialists and often misses cultivating broad intellectual love.
- Walter says the job of humanities professors should be to make students fall in love with the material, not invent new niche theories for tiny audiences.
