Germ theory, which secularized infectious disease, had a side effect: it sacralized epidemiology.

A great deal of what many Americans hold dear is nowhere written on those four pages of parchment, or in any of the amendments. What has made the Constitution durable is the same as what makes it demanding: the fact that so much was left out.

Germ theory, which secularized infectious disease, had a side effect: it sacralized epidemiology.

The world may not be getting better and better, but our devices are getting newer and newer.

History is the art of making an argument about the past by telling a story accountable to evidence. In the writing of history, a story without an argument fades into antiquarianism; an argument without a story risks pedantry. Writing history requires empathy, inquiry, and debate. It requires forswearing condescension, cant, and nostalgia. The past isn’t quaint. Much of it, in fact, is bleak.

In kindergarten, you can learn how to be a citizen of the world.

History is a long and endlessly interesting argument, where evidence is everything and storytelling is everything else.