Rome was founded by Aeneas, fresh from the battle of Troy and betrayal of Dido. Athens was set aside for Athena when she made an olive tree spring up on its acropolis, securing her victory over Poseidon. Babylon was built by the sweat of the gods, who made bricks and mortar and civilizzed the wilderness. In ancient times, people clung to mythical histories, heritages inevitably heroic or divine.

But all myths are not ancient. Nor are they all of dubious pedigree. In his bestselling To America: Personal Reflections of an Historian, the late Stephen Ambrose presents a number of America’s mythical heroes (presidents, pioneers) and triumphs (the transcontinental railway, WWII) as historically legitimate and admirable realities. He permits criticism—of slavery, genocide, corruption—but he insists that history ultimately should inspire hope and not simply drive us to despair.

Although the naivete of To America is disappointing, Ambrose has a point, for Europe and the rest of the world as much as for America. In taking stock of the past, we can’t be dismissive of its embarrassments and atrocities, nor should we be dominated by them. Both sorts of responses to history come together to form a sort of pathway for the future. The first provides a warning, a guardrail; the second an inspiration, a powerful vision of what should be preserved, with hopes of creating a history free from evils such as bigotry, exploitation, and violence. Three articles in this issue offer perspectives on the criticism, and the creation, of history.

Len Epp, in his review of Astolphe de Custine’s cutting, prescient Letters from Russia, considers the life and work of a western European observer of social and political oppression in 19th-century Russia. Epp turns also to a less obvious sort of tyranny that Custine’s chronicle records: he comments on Russia’s preoccupation with the myth of its inevitable cycles of suffering and despotism. Finally, he suggests, this myth is not merely descriptive but in some way causative of Russia’s subjection to actual tyrannies, checking any hope for a reformation of national identity.

In her strong endorsement of David McCullough’s John Adams, Jacqueline Newmyer argues for a view of modern America closely linked to its founding ideals. She takes these ideals as directly and substantively productive of the values at stake in present conflicts. She claims that, despite the liabilities of some of the writings and actions of the founders, the commitment to freedom espoused by Adams and others was total: worthy of the respect and protection of all who share the values of democracy and civil liberty.

Joshua Cherniss outlines Isaiah Berlin’s legacy as a philosophical historian. Cherniss focuses on recently published Cold War-era lectures in which Berlin chronicles six thinkers whose heritage, he argues, becomes a story of Freedom and its Betrayal. As a new century takes shape, and looks wearisomely like the old, reimagining freedom, and revisiting its abuses at the hands of intellectuals and others who should have been its guardians, seems all the more urgent a task. These articles deal with history and, crucially, the freedom to move beyond the mistakes of history to fashion something new, and, we hope, better.

I’d welcome your comments about these and our other articles. Please write to me at editor@oxonianreview.org.