The past is no country at all

History teaches us how we got here, not what happens next

Everywhere I turn since Russia invaded Ukraine, someone is trotting out a version of the old saying: “Those who do not learn their history are doomed to repeat it.” What they mean, more often than not, is that Vladimir Putin is Hitler, Ukraine is either Czechoslovakia or Poland — and thus that World War III is already upon us.

It’s ironic that such a bel…