What Franklin and the others knew is that a republican government is an exercise in human optimism, and patriotic republicans must be engaged in an unremitting struggle against that human entropy we used to know as original sin.
The older textbook view of our history (whose most idiotic version goes by the name “American Exceptionalism”) is that the American colonists were a rare breed of individualists, cut loose from the traditions of old Europe, who came to New World seeking religious liberty.
Impromptu responses to the Ukraine crisis, Israel and Iran, the first transgender cabinet secretary, the most recent shooting in Minnesota
I just received word from Anthony Bukoski that his latest book. The Blondes of Wisconsin, has just been published.
History is bunk, said Henry Ford on a famous occasion. His sentiments were echoed, as Forrest McDonald reminded a conservative audience, by President George H.W. Bush, who would anyone who lost a political squabble with him with the phrase, “He’s history,” as if to say that they were without significance.
Americans seem divided on the British Royal Family. Hollywood adores Mr. and Mrs. Markle, while many populist conservatives complain that their antics should remind us why we rebelled in 1776. Looking for sanity in such a debate may be a futile exercise, but….
Greeks were not squeamish about discussing sexual matters, though their degree of frankness depended upon circumstance and genre: What could be said in a comedy or put on a vase was not the same as the treatment of sex in tragedy or religious sculpture.
A Brief Chronology of later Roman History with a few quotations and citations added as the weeks go by….
In preparation for the Summer Seminar on the age of Boethius, Stephen and Dr. Fleming discuss the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire. This podcast is available to Gold and Charter subscribers. For the chronology, please see Chronology post on the website.
A podcast discussion of the most vexed line in the Lord’s Prayer–and in all the Gospels.
