A few nights ago, I was watching The Way We Were, a film I’ve seen more times than I can count. This time, a single line stopped me. Katie Morosky, played by Barbra Streisand, has just returned from a political demonstration in Washington. She and Hubbell are arguing when she says: “People are their principles.” It’s a simple sentence. But...

I’ll be back on January 5th. Later that night, Emily returned home, warmed her hands around a cup of tea, and set the original lantern on her windowsill—lit, as it had been meant to be. She unfolded the letter once more. Outside, snow drifted across the quiet street. Then she saw one lantern glow. Then another, and another, until the...

In the winter of his century, Charles Dickens walked a London powered by industry but running short on warmth. People moved past one another as if connection were a luxury they could no longer afford. Wealth and want lived on opposite sides of the same street, and compassion, even at Christmas time, was showing signs of strain. Dickens wrote his...

In a war that hammered away and left families lying awake at night counting the seconds between sirens, John Gilbert Winant, America’s ambassador to Britain, kept looking for ways to bring a little light into all that darkness. As Thanksgiving approached, thousands of young Americans scattered across London felt the distance from home: no familiar table with family, just a...

During his years in wartime London, U.S. Ambassador John Gilbert Winant absorbed the suffering around him. He was known for walking the streets during the Blitz, talking with ordinary people, sharing in their daily fears, helping to strengthen their resolve. Londoners remembered him for his compassion and accessibility. Historians consistently note how deeply he internalized the city’s suffering. He carried...

John Gilbert Winant was one of the rarest of figures in public life: a three-term Republican governor from New Hampshire whose leadership wasn’t calculated but instinctive; a public servant who treated humility as a strength, and a diplomat who put principle ahead of political convenience. Yet for all the steadiness he gave to others, he struggled to find a place...

In his first inaugural address, Franklin D. Roosevelt declared, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” At the time, the country was in the depths of the Great Depression, and fear was everywhere—fear of poverty, fear of failure, fear of the unknown. Roosevelt knew that fear, if left unchecked, could paralyze a nation. More importantly, he understood...

In a Thanksgiving address given in 1944 at London’s Royal Albert Hall, and in the presence of  Winston Churchill, United States Ambassador John Gilbert Winant concluded his speech with these words: “We are grateful that you have joined us on this day of Thanksgiving because, through common sacrifice and a sustaining Providence, we have been able together to preserve our...

I first heard about John Gilbert Winant several years ago in Concord, New Hampshire, while I was teaching a class on ethics. My co-captain, Professor Stephen Ambra, spoke admiringly of the three-term Republican governor of the state. However, the most compelling part of Winant’s story unfolded during his time abroad, serving as the U.S. Ambassador to England. In 1941, Democrat...

Sometimes, those who have contributed mightily to their country slip below history’s radar. John Gilbert Winant was one of them. After serving two terms as the Republican Governor of New Hampshire, Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt tapped Winant to be the first head of the Social Security Board. While Republican colleagues called him “a Republican New Dealer,” Winant’s work so impressed...