Welcome to Current Affairs. My name is Nathan Robinson. I am the editor in Chief of Current Affairs Magazine.

I am joined today by Professor Sophia Rosenfeld. She is the Walter Annenberg

Professor of History and the Chair of the History Department at the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of books, including the Age of Choice, a history of freedom in modern life,

which was just published by the Princeton University

Press. She's also the author of a Revolutionary Language, the Problem of Science in late 18th

century France, and the book that is most important in informing the conversation we're going

to have today, which is common sense, a political history

published by Harvard University Press in 2011.

Professor Rosenfeld, thank you so much for joining us on current affairs today.

My pleasure. Thanks for having me as a guest.

Well, you were the person I wanted to talk to because I heard President Trump in his inaugural address

speak of a revolution of common sense is his term. And also, after there was the recent

tragic plane crash over the Potomac in January. He gave a press conference. He claimed that

diversity policies were responsible for the crash. It was still under investigation. No one

knew what was responsible for the crash. And he was asked, you know, how he could possibly conclude

this. And he replied, because I have common sense. So I thought, well, I need to, you know, how he could possibly conclude this. And he replied, because I have common sense.

So I thought, well, I need to, you know who I need to talk to.

I need to talk to the world's leading historian of the concept of common sense,

which is a very interesting niche for you to occupy.

But I wondered if first I could get your reaction to hearing the president of the

United States put so much emphasis in his rhetoric on a term that over 10 years ago now,

...