by Victor Davis Hanson // Defining Ideas During the last days of the Ancien Régime, French Queen Marie Antoinette frolicked in a fake rural village not far from the Versailles Palace—the Hameau de la Reine (“the Queen’s hamlet”). “Peasant” farmers and herdsmen were imported to interact, albeit carefully, with the royal retinue in an […]
America’s Versailles Set Read More »
by Victor Davis Hanson Defining Ideas The United States and Europe are seeing a surge in populist anger toward the so-called elites. The German public, for example, is furious at Chancellor Angela Merkel for her position on immigration from the Middle East. British voters have forsaken the postmodern European Union. And working class Americans have
Who Are Those Darned “Elites”? Read More »
If you playact being shot by the police, cry “racist!” on Twitter, or denounce capitalism, you, too, can feel good about your capitalist’s privilege. By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online In an affluent postmodern society of nearly unlimited freedom and opportunity, elite celebrities, pampered athletes, comfortable academics, conniving politicians, and careerist journalists find
The Virtue-Mongers Read More »
Technology hasn’t changed the core of who we are, and history proves it. By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online In today’s technically sophisticated and globally connected world, we assume life has been completely reinvented. In truth, it has not changed all that much. Facebook and Google may have recalibrated our lifestyles, but human
The More Things Change, the More They Actually Don’t Read More »
A world without boundaries is a fantasy. By Victor Davis Hanson // City Journal Borders are in the news as never before. After millions of young, Muslim, and mostly male refugees flooded into the European Union last year from the war-torn Middle East, a popular revolt arose against the so-called Schengen Area agreements, which give
Imagine There’s No Border Read More »
Today, it seems that Orwell’s 1984 would better have been titled 2016. By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Technical progress is often associated with moral and political regress, a theme as ancient as Hesiod’s seventh-century b.c. poem Works and Days. In 200 b.c., not a male could vote freely in Hellenistic Greece, but
The Great Regression Read More »
by Victor Davis Hanson Defining Ideas Image credit: Barbara Kelley Nearly a half-century ago, Bob Dylan wrote a mixed ode to the immigrant, in a way that no doubt might earn him charges of racism, nativism, and xenophobia in today’s politically-correct age. Yet Dylan was trying to express the paradoxes of leaving one’s homeland for
The Immigrant’s Dilemma Read More »
Have we reached a point of no return? By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Multicultural societies — from 19th-century Austria–Hungary to contemporary Iraq, Lebanon, the former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda — have a poor record of keeping the peace between competing tribes. They usually end up mired in nihilistic and endemic violence. The only
Fundamentally Transformed Read More »
We still have five more months of Trump vs. Hillary. Then four or eight years of — what? By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online The Disaffected. Will stay-home so-called establishment Republicans outnumber renewed Reagan Democrats, Tea Partiers, and conservative independents, some of whom likely sat out 2008 and 2012, but who now are
Election 2016: Knowns and Unknowns Read More »
We should seek to preserve the ideals that made America successful. By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online The history of nations is mostly characterized by ethnic and racial uniformity, not diversity. Most national boundaries reflected linguistic, religious, and ethnic homogeneity. Until the late 20th century, diversity was considered a liability, not a strength.
America: History’s Exception Read More »