Maurice Gamelin (1872-1958) was the French Chief of the Army Staff from 1931 until 1940. While there is a surplus of blame that can be laid on the corpses and reputations of battalions of French and British officials, journalists, and many if not most of their citizens, Gamelin is a prime example of how a…
The Weimar Republic governed Germany as a constitutional federal republic from the end of World War I until March 23, 1933, when the country officially became a one-party dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler. It effectively ended on January 30 of that year when the president of the republic (Paul von Hindenburg) appointed Hitler…
Edward Gibbon wrote, “History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.” His great predecessor the Greek historian Polybius (c. 200 – c.118 BC) seems on close analysis by the reader to have believed that history was little more than the register of different people doing the same things over…
Niall Ferguson is one the most distinguished historians of the current century. King Charles III recently knighted him. We’re All Soviets Now is an article by him in which he notes the similarities between the late Soviet Union and current America. You can peruse his article and make your own judgment about the validity of…
Benjamin Franklin’s accomplishments dwarf those of any American since the advent of recorded history. His accomplishments are so vast and varied that no other American comes close. He was interested in virtually everything and made more contributions to more fields than any of his countrymen before or since his time. He was a writer, scientist,…
Author Andrew Roberts has the industry of a worker bee mixed with the allure of a rare butterfly. He turns out historical biographies like lava from an active volcano. His one volume biography of Churchill, a very big one volume comprising 1152 pages, was published in 2018 and is the definitive account of the great…
If you do a search for universal genius a variety of definitions will appear. Often they equate the term with polymath. Polymaths are quite numerous, though a very small proportion of the total population. The definition used here is a person whose accomplishment is either so far above any other person of genius in the…
It (progressivism) is rather as if a nurse had tried a rather bitter food for some years on a baby, and on discovering that it was not suitable, should not throw away the food and ask for a new food, but throw the baby out of window, and ask for a new baby. GK Chesterton…
Biographer Andrew Roberts recently published The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III. The book is a detailed biography of the monarch who lost America. It’s so detailed that it likely contains more than some readers will care know about the King. Roberts had complete and unprecedented access to the royal archives…
This one really speaks to the state of contemporary thought and discourse. “To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?” ― Marcus Tullius…