By: Sara Wolfe
For Maj. Gen. John L. Barry, USAF (Ret.), history is not simply a record of what happened before. It is a tool for evaluating risk, recognizing patterns, and making better decisions in the present. That belief is at the center of his book Power and Peril, which uses historical comparisons to examine leadership, presidential authority, national security, political polarization, and the durability of democratic institutions.
Barry brings an unusual range of experience to the subject. During more than three decades in the United States Air Force, he served as a fighter pilot and combat veteran, graduated from the USAF Fighter Weapons School, and rose to Major General. He held senior leadership positions during Desert Storm, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the military’s post-Cold War transformation. He later served as the Air Force’s lead strategic planner in the Pentagon, where he survived the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
His military career concluded with work on the Columbia Space Shuttle Accident Investigation after the 2003 loss of Columbia. Barry then moved into education and nonprofit leadership, serving as superintendent of Aurora Public Schools, president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver, and president and CEO of Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum.
Across those settings, he says history repeatedly proved useful because the problems leaders face are often new versions of older challenges.
“Because history is the closest thing we have to a strategic laboratory,” Barry said when asked why history matters today. “We can’t experiment with nations the way scientists experiment in a lab, but we can study thousands of years of successes and failures.”
Power and Peril follows that approach. Its essays compare contemporary pressures with earlier moments in American and world history, looking for recurring patterns in how nations rise, adapt, weaken, and recover. The book examines presidential power and constitutional restraint, the evolution of executive authority, America’s changing global role, authoritarian tendencies abroad, civil-military relations, economic competition, manufacturing, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
Barry’s purpose is not to suggest that history provides a simple formula. He argues instead that historical context can prevent leaders and citizens from treating every crisis as entirely unprecedented.
“Too often we treat today’s problems as if they’ve never happened before,” Barry said. “In reality, many of today’s challenges are new versions of very old problems. History doesn’t give us easy answers, but it gives us perspective, and perspective leads to better decisions.”
That distinction shapes the book’s structure. Barry organizes the book much like a strategic campaign plan. The first section addresses presidential power and constitutional limits. The second examines America’s role in the world. The third considers the gradual weakening of democracies. A fourth section explores major contradictions facing the country, while the final section turns toward national resilience through education, innovation, manufacturing, cybersecurity, and civic responsibility.
Each chapter is designed to stand on its own, but Barry says the chapters build toward a larger conclusion: the country’s long-term health depends on more than the identity of any individual officeholder.
“America’s future will depend less on who occupies office than on whether our institutions remain strong enough to withstand the pressures of every generation,” he said.
Barry’s interest in history continues in his current roles as chair of the Air Force Historical Foundation and vice chair of the National Aviation Hall of Fame. A 1973 honor graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, he earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Oklahoma, served as a White House Fellow at NASA during the Challenger era and studied national security leadership at Harvard Kennedy School.
His career has also included recognition as Colorado Superintendent of the Year, induction into the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame and the Colorado Titan 100 CEOs Hall of Fame, the White House Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award, and the FAA Master Pilot Award.
In the book, however, Barry returns again and again to curiosity rather than certainty. The book is written for military members, educators, business leaders, policymakers, students and citizens who want a plain-language framework for thinking through complex public issues.
“I want readers to think, question, and draw their own conclusions,” Barry said.
The book’s broader message is that historical understanding does not remove uncertainty. It can, however, make uncertainty easier to evaluate. As Barry puts it, “History doesn’t repeat itself exactly, but it often rhymes.” For readers facing an era of rapid political, technological, and geopolitical change, Power and Peril argues that recognizing those echoes may be one of the most practical forms of preparation available.
Power and Peril is available on Amazon.
