A Brief History of Inbreeding
How kinship, culture, and genetics shaped one of humanity’s oldest taboos.
Francisco Ceballos
· 12 min read
History
A collection of 369 posts
Red Sheep
An impressive new biography of Jessica Mitford emphasises her sceptical and anti-authoritarian personality. But this was only half of the picture.
Ron Capshaw
· 10 min read
The Line Dividing Good and Evil
What we can learn from the moral and literary failings of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and James Baldwin.
Megan Gafford
· 8 min read
Where Have All the Cultures Gone?
The homogenisation of culture begins with the loss of language.
Tristan S. Rapp
· 10 min read
Dawn of the Beaver Wars
In the 28th instalment of ‘Nations of Canada,’ Greg Koabel describes the deadly conflicts that emerged in the late 1630s between the Wendat and Haudenosaunee confederacies.
Greg Koabel
· 23 min read
Despite Israel, Not Because of It
Israelis repeatedly warned the Bush administration that invading Iraq would be a disaster.
David Brog
· 10 min read
A Self-Created Tyrant
In a new biography of Stalin, William Nester does his best to locate a human being within the monster, but those efforts eventually run aground.
Ron Capshaw
· 6 min read
The Middle East Will Not Improve
Decades of free riding has meant that many Middle East countries lack the skills and institutions necessary to maintain and build upon the favourable circumstances in which they now find themselves.
Eric Bordenkircher
· 10 min read
The Central Dichotomy
An appreciation of Richard Herzinger (1957–2025).
Jeffrey Herf
· 7 min read
David’s Unholstered Sling
Lessons from 7 October and the 2023–25 war.
Brian Stewart
· 17 min read
The Good War No More
Jon Lee Anderson’s powerful new book on Afghanistan reminds us that the justness of a cause is no guarantee of its success.
Brian Stewart
· 6 min read
The Liberal-International Order Will Survive
...but it will need to be reimagined in the post-Trump era.
Matt Johnson
· 20 min read
Peace and Appeasement
Israel now stands accused of genocide for refusing to accept its own annihilation.
Yuki Zeman
· 8 min read
The 100 Million Killed Under Communist Regimes Matter
The death toll under Communist regimes is of incredible magnitude. Yet whenever I attack Communism for being an evil ideology, I get a serious number of rebuttals.
Razib Khan
· 6 min read
Another JFK Assassination Nothingburger
Jefferson Morley’s dogged pursuit of a CIA connection in Miami is all smoke and no fire.
Fred Litwin
· 16 min read