The massively influential leftist historian has died at 87. I am grateful to him chiefly for the delightful phrase “you can’t be neutral on a moving train,” even though the phrase does tend to encourage political activism. Brian Doherty over at Reason offers a reflection, on how we can sometimes learn even from the most tendentious works of our political opponents.

UPDATE: It turns out you have to get up pretty early in the morning to scoop John Miller when it comes to leftist historians.