To honor his memory, it's important to place him in his era of bold optimism and hard realism—and alongside other great leaders of that era.

The Grateful Dead Archive, scheduled to open soon at the University of California at Santa Cruz, will be a mecca for academics of all stripes: from ethno­musicologists to philosophers, sociologists to historians. But the biggest beneficiaries may prove to be business scholars and management theorists, who are discovering that the Dead were visionary geniuses in the way they created “customer value,” promoted social networking, and did strategic business planning.

Responses and reverberations

When war zones become travel destinations

A middle-school class in Brooklyn was getting ready to visit the Maryland city this month—and then the Freddie Gray protests unfolded. But the turn of events has offered an invaluable learning opportunity.

The Iowa Republican’s racist comments have made him a pariah among Democrats and Republicans alike. But his voters may be more devoted to him than ever.

Like Frederick Douglass, we can find inspiration for this moment in the oldest story of rebirth and renewal.