How Did Germany Lose a War It Had Won? At the dawn of 1941, there was no expectation in Moscow that Germany would violate the tense but still very much viable August 23, 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, or that the U.S. would intervene on Britain’s side. The U.S.S.R. was eager to stay out of any second …
VDH UltraHistorian’s Corner: Some Mythologies of World War II: Part Two: Read More »
Did Germany Win the World Wars Before It Started a New One? “World War II,” or the Anglicized “Second World War,” began formally on September 1, 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. It ended officially with the surrender of the Japanese on September 2, 1945 on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo …
VDH UltraHistorian’s Corner: Some Mythologies of World War II: Part One: Read More »
An Afghanistan Postscript There are real foreign policy consequences for a society adrift from its origins and foundational principles of citizenship. So, it was only a matter of time until the US had a rendezvous with tragedy abroad given the unhinged assumptions it was operating upon at home. I list a few symptoms, in no …
Victor Davis Hanson // Historian’s Corner All of these ad hoc challenges share a common symptom, the steady erosion of the chief tenets of citizenship. The diminution of the middle class, the porousness of our borders, and the dangerous idea that race is incidental not essential to who we are, occur almost organically. It is …
Victor Davis Hanson // Historian’s Corner Yet rarely do we connect America’s malaise, its divisions, and its obsessions with national decline, to a loss of citizenship—the original glue that once held together the American experiment. Perhaps we assume that a “citizen” is a natural concept that arose organically with the ascent of civilization itself. It …
Victor Davis Hanson // Historian’s Corner In its 245th year has America become dangerously divided or just chaotic—or both? More Americans are currently concluding that their country either does not work as it once did, or works all too well in ways that are frightening. In a recent five-day period in California’s Central Valley, where I …
Part Four: Steps 9-10 Erase Customs and Traditions Ending a nation requires discrediting its past. Start with Year Zero reinvention. That is, 1776 and 1787-9 are no longer our foundational dates. Instead 1619, a made-up date supposedly when the first African-American slave stepped onto North America, marks the foul birth of the now despised country, …
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Part Three: Steps 6-8. VI. Trash the Productive Class Why are frackers considered not just polluters, but near criminal enemies of the planet? Thanks to them, abundant natural gas has reduced US carbon footprints in a manner that exceeds those nations in the Paris Climate Accord. Thanks to them, the US has no strategic interests …
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Victor Davis Hanson // The Blade of Perseus Joe Biden could easily have stayed quiet about his intentions in Afghanistan—or at least leave the enemy in some doubt. He might have maintained US air facilities to support Afghan forces, and kept the major cities secure as they were between 2017-20 under Trump, who himself …
Part Two: Steps 4-5 IV. Ruin the Currency The work of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of economists, and the pragmatic tough policies of Paul Volker broke modern American inflation 40 years ago. We know what causes it and why—printing money in lieu of commensurate increases in population, productivity and national wealth for short-term …
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