Christopher McKnight Nichols taught history at Oregon State University for a decade and was also the director of its Center for the Humanities until 2022. He left that year for Ohio State University, where he is today the Wayne Woodrow Hayes Chair in National Security and a professor of history.

He is also the co-chair of the university’s America at 250 Initiative, a series of programs commemorating the 250th anniversary of our nation’s independence.

Nichols is returning to Oregon to give a free lecture tonight in Portland that will explore the political parallels between our nation’s present and its past and the role that we, as citizens, can play in shaping our democracy’s future.

The nonprofit Senior Advocates for Generational Equity is organizing the discussion that takes place less than three weeks before the general election and amid intense political polarization in the U.S.

Nichols joins us for a preview of his talk.

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News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/15/a-historians-perspective-on-where-we-are-as-a-nation/