The Historian in the Rose Garden?

Fifteen years ago, Richard Neustadt and Ernest R. May wrote a series of his torical case studies that they hoped would lead to "working procedures to get more history used better on the job by busy people preoccupied with daily decisions ... of management." With the publication of their book, Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision-Makers, history boldly launched itself into the field of policy studies, bidding to take its place with economics, political science, and other fields that claim to present useful knowledge.1 Perhaps the fond dream of a "council of historical advisors" might finally come true.2 Visions of White House invitations and Rose Garden parties danced in the heads of who knows how many middle-aged historians.