Princeton Historian: America Can Beat Coronavirus if We Don't 'Defeat Ourselves'

"I would be cautious about predicting the future, but obviously this is a very serious challenge. And the challenge could get significantly worse as well as significantly better," said Stephen Kotkin, a professor of history at Princeton and Hoover Institution senior fellow, on Fox Nation's "Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson."

"If you look at overall World War II or the Cold War and the struggle first against Germany and Japan and then against the Soviet Union, you see that democracies are better than totalitarian regimes at mass mobilization of resources," he continued.

From his work studying the Soviet Union, Kotkin concluded that there are two major factors necessary to overcoming national calamity--competent, compassionate leadership and social solidarity and trust.

Compassionate leadership and social solidarity are weakest in authoritarian societies, said Kotkin.

"The advantages are on the side of democracies," he noted.

However, Kotkin warned America runs the risk of failing to rise to the challenge posed by the coronavirus, as well as the threats from authoritarian powers around the world.