The Past as Prologue ("Over There" in American History)

By: John Tierney

The Past as Prologue ("Over There" in American History) is a collection of essays (162) written between 2015 and 2021. The central theme, from the main title, is an attempt to tie history to the present and future on the subject, bearing in mind the recent domestic turmoil to "erase" aspects of "Americana" or to alter the past in order to build a different future.

In this sense the book is "traditional" insofar as it respects the past as a "prologue" to what comes next. But the hope ("aspiration") is that the best elements of American history in world politics will serve as guides to what the country can do to provide a secure and free global future.

The essays herein try to remember when Americans won world wars and the Cold War, when they made efforts to both "isolate" themselves from war and conflict and when they, reluctantly, had to "intervene" to establish peace and prosperity where disaster had destroyed both.

In this sense the book looks "forward" to a better future, where the best elements of history carry forth and where the "other" elements are allowed to develop amidst stability and progress.

Finally, the essays try to resurrect America's history in world politics, against a background where it has been forgotten, which in history has been called "normalcy."

The reader may judge if the term applies.