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
· 18 min read
History
A collection of 350 posts
Trump and the Academic Cocoon
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
· 12 min read
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
· 11 min read
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
· 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, Sean McMeekin
· 16 min read
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
· 18 min read
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
· 13 min read
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
· 11 min read
Making America British Again
The story of William Cobbett and the American Revolutionary culture wars.
David A. Wilson
· 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.
Charlotte Allen
· 20 min read
Apocalypse Never
Contra the critics, the advent of nuclear weapons has made the world far safer.
Mike Coté
· 12 min read
Springtime for Sinwar
Notes on the pro-Hamas Left and its antecedents.
Jeffrey Herf
· 21 min read
Bad History at the BBC
A new radio series about the 1943 Bengal famine favours culture-war polemic over rigorous scholarship.
Hira Jungkow
· 6 min read
Swastikas of Both Sorts: Hindu Nationalism's Fascist Nostalgia
Hindu nationalism is nostalgic for a golden age that never existed, before the invasions of first the Muslims and then the British.
Anwesh Satpathy
· 12 min read
Misadventures of a Stalinist Stooge
Benn Steil’s engrossing new biography of Henry A. Wallace is a timely cautionary tale and a masterpiece of 20th-century American history.
Ronald Radosh
· 23 min read