The End of ‘Whig’ History and the Twilight of Nations

A worker cleans the statue of former prime minister Winston Churchill in London’s Parliament Square that had been spray painted with graffiti during a Black Lives Matter protest on June 8, 2020. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Commentary 

From the 17th to the 20th century, “Whigs” shaped an Anglo-American culture based on the universal principles of the European Enlightenment—individual liberty, free speech, property rights, rule of law, free enterprise, and democratic governance.