It’s easy to look at American politics, now, and find individuals for whom loyalty to party or an individual leader is the only thing that matters. But Richard Aldous tells us of another time when service to the nation was the highest service in public life.

Aldous is the Eugene Meyer Professor of British history and Culture at Bard College and specializes in twentieth-century history. He earned his Ph.D., from the University of Cambridge and is a Fellow in the Royal Historical Society. He has authored and edited 11 books, including “Schlesinger: The Imperial Historian,” “Reagan and Thatcher: The Difficult Relationship,” “Macmillan, Eisenhower and the Cold War,” “The Lion and the Unicorn: Gladstone vs. Disraeli” and biographies of Malcolm Sargent and Tony Ryan. Aldous also taught for 15 years at University College Dublin, where he was chair of the History Department. He continues to write regularly for publications including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and The American Interest, where he is a contributing editor.