Category: History
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Hillary Milhous Clinton
John Fund explores the parallels between Nixon and Hillary, between Watergate and the e-mail scandal.
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The Rosenbergs: Still Guilty After All These Years
On this date in 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were put to death as atomic spies for the Soviet Union. They were most certainly guilty as we now know. But no amount of proof of their guilt will stop the Left from lying about them as victims of American 'fascism.' In those days we weren't the decadent…
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St. Jerome on the Collapse of the Roman Empire
The following, which might be relevant to current events, is borrowed from here. St. Jerome was born around the year 340. He came to Rome and was baptized there around 360. He devoted the rest of his life to scholarly pursuits and the translation of the Bible into Latin. He died in 420. He…
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Crusades Crash Course
Steve Weidenkopf
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The Crusades Were Defensive Wars
Thomas F. Madden: For starters, the Crusades to the East were in every way defensive wars. They were a direct response to Muslim aggression—an attempt to turn back or defend against Muslim conquests of Christian lands. Christians in the eleventh century were not paranoid fanatics. Muslims really were gunning for them. While Muslims can be…
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The Crusades: Misconceptions Debunked
A review by Thomas F. Madden of Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam. Some excerpts (bolding added): It is generally thought that Christians attacked Muslims without provocation to seize their lands and forcibly convert them. The Crusaders were Europe’s lacklands and ne’er-do-wells, who marched against the infidels out of blind zealotry and a desire…
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Bernard Lewis, “Jihad versus Crusade”
We Americans are forward-looking people, 'progressives' if you will. ("History is bunk," said Henry Ford.) Muslims, by contrast, live in the past where they nurture centuries-old grievances. This is part of the explanation of the inanition of their culture and the misery of their lands, which fact is part of the explanation of why they…
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Joachim Fest, Not I
One of the books I am reading is Joachim Fest's Not I: Memories of a German Childhood (orig. publ. in German in 2006 by Rowohlt, tr. Martin Chalmers, New York, Other Press, 2013). The title alludes to Mark 14:29: "But Peter said unto him, Although all shall be offended, yet will not I." WSJ review…
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Homo Homini Lupus: The Red Army Rape of German Women, Spring 1945
The best antidote to the leftist-progressivist fantasy that man is basically good is the study of history, including the history of leftist-progressivist atrocities. Here is an excerpt from Antony Beevor's book on the fall of Berlin. "They raped every German female from eight to 80." Related articles Death Limits Our Immorality: Death as the Muse…
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Putin’s Sudetenland?
It occurred to me this morning that there is an ominous parallel between Putin's occupation of the Ukraine and Hitler's of the Sudetenland, and on a similar pretext, namely, the protecting of ethnic Russians/Germans. The Sudetenland was the German-speaking region of Czechoslovakia whose annexation by Hitler in 1938 was part of the run-up to the…
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Is Liberalism on the Wrong Side of History?
John Hawkins argues that it is in a recent Townhall piece. I agree with everything he says, except the title. It suffices to argue that liberalism is wrong. It is irrelevant whether it is on the right or wrong side of history. Allow me to explain. The phrase "on the wrong side of history" is…
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JFK: A Beautiful Mediocrity
There is much that is right in this piece by the editors of NRO. But I am sure glad that Kennedy was in charge back in October, 1962 as opposed to Bill Clinton or, God forbid, the feckless Obama. The Irishman was a resolute commie-fighter who stood tall against Krushchev, the shoe-banging butcher of the…
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JFK Assassination: Chalk it up to One Lone Nebbish
I don't usually recommend anything from Slate, but Fred Kaplan's Killing Conspiracy is a must-read. The money quote: . . . If horrible events can be traced to a cabal of evildoers who control the world from behind a vast curtain, that’s, in one sense, less scary than the idea that some horrible things happen…
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History Lesson
Victor Davis Hanson answers three questions: 1. Why did the Japanese so foolishly attack Pearl Harbor? 2. Why did the Germans attack the Soviet Union so recklessly at a time when they had all but won the war? 3. Why did the United States stop after spring 1951 at the 38th Parallel, thereby ensuring a…