When I learned that “neostoicism” gained popularity in early modern Europe suffering from the Eighty Years’ War and the Thirty Years’ War, I couldn’t help a detour. Though separated by an ocean and three centuries, the philosophy seemed to echo in the words of my biography subject, Wilbur J. Carr, as he described how he approached his responsibilities at the State Department in the early twentieth century.

Surely these philosophies don’t travel that far … or do they?

This week on How We Got Here, on Substack.