History - Quillette

A Very American Madness

America is not fallen; it is simply given to periodic bouts of insanity. The patient is tiresome; the patient is ridiculous; but the patient is stable.

Ronald W. Dworkin

12 Dec 2024 · 17 min read

Ta-Nehisi Coates is a middle-aged black man in a suit with the Dome of the Rock in the background.

Oversimplify and Vilify

‘The Message’ is a lopsided, unserious, and frequently embarrassing essay, the real target of which is the very existence of Israel.

Mark Horowitz

11 Dec 2024 · 12 min read

The Recline of the West

Since the 18th century, the very process of innovation was uniquely institutionalised in the West. That is now precisely what is being globalised.

Lawrence Cahoone

6 Dec 2024 · 18 min read

David is a white man in his 60s or 70s with glasses

A New York Times op-ed by a Yale historian tries to see universities from the vantage point of an outsider. Instead, it unwittingly illustrates why universities will not self-correct without external intervention.

Heather Mac Donald

28 Nov 2024 · 12 min read

Jewish star of David painted on the German national flag.

Anti-Zionism’s German Roots

While Islam traditionally treated Jews with contempt, antisemitic conspiracy theories imported from Germany escalated this animosity by vilifying Jews as agents of diabolical evil.

Gerfried Ambrosch

18 Nov 2024 · 11 min read

A protester holds up two signs condemning settler colonialism

A Fashionable Madness: The Obsession with ‘Settler Colonialism’

The works of literary critic Adam Kirsch and of novelist and memoirist Joan Didion provide a salutary rebuttal of settler colonialist theory.

Robert Huddleston

17 Oct 2024 · 14 min read

Podcast #253: A Brief History of Communism

Jonathan Kay speaks with Bard College historian Sean McMeekin about his new book, To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism.

Quillette

4 Oct 2024 · 16 min read

Detail from Der große deutsche Bauernkrieg (The Great German Peasants’ War), a 1955 painting by Max Lingner (1888–1959).

Where Virtue Meets Terror: A Brief History of Proto-Communism

In a new book on the history of communism, Sean McMeekin traces the movement’s roots to egalitarian creeds embraced throughout history by prophets, philosophers, utopians, and serfs.

Sean McMeekin

10 Sep 2024 · 18 min read

A black and white image of a young Lt. Melvin J. Lasky in Germany.

Melvin Lasky: Diary of a Cold Warrior

Melvin Lasky was an indefatigable defender of the liberal spirit during the recovery of postwar Germany.

Oscar Clarke

19 Aug 2024 · 13 min read

Masai man standing against sunrise from Masai Mara National Park, Kenya.

Africa and the History of Civilisation

The history of Africa isn’t the history of the ‘black race,’ but a vital part of the history of human civilisation.

Ralph Leonard

16 Jul 2024 · 11 min read

Making America British Again

The story of William Cobbett and the American Revolutionary culture wars.

David A. Wilson

9 Jul 2024 · 13 min read

France’s Founding Fathers: A Review of ‘House of Lilies’

In a new book, Justine Firnhaber-Baker tells the story of the Capetian dynasty (987–1328), whose rulers stitched a set of medieval duchies and counties into a single kingdom.