History
A Short History of Amorous Generals
by Victor Davis Hanson Defining Ideas Many were as pursuant of women as they were of the enemy — and the former rarely impaired the latter. “You’re a very bad man.” So yelled Dorothy at the Wizard of Oz, once the imposing, larger-than-life face on the screen was revealed to be a mere projection of …
Modern Wisdom from Ancient Minds
by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media The Tragic View Of course we can acquire a sense of man’s predictable fragilities from religion, the Judeo-Christian view in particular, or from the school of hard knocks. Losing a grape crop to rain a day before harvest, or seeing a warehouse full of goods go up in smoke …
War’s Paradoxes: From Pearl Harbor to the Russian Front to the 38th Parallel
by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media From time to time, I take a break from opinion writing here at Works and Days [1] and turn to history — on this occasion, I am prompted by the 71st anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Here are a few of the most common questions that I have …
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Are We Becoming Medieval?
by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online A tourist mecca like Venice now boasts that it dreams of breaking away from an insolvent Italy. Similarly Barcelona, and perhaps the Basques and the Catalonians in general, claim they want no part of a bankrupt Spain. Scotland fantasizes about becoming separate from Great Britain. The Greek Right dreams …
The Nobel Committee and Its Orwellian Peace Prize
by Bruce Thornton FrontPage Magazine Norway’s Nobel Committee added yet another absurd pick to its long list of politicized and shameful Peace Prize awards. Giving the prize to the disintegrating European Union is not as despicable as giving it to the bloodstained terrorist Yasser Arafat, or as laughably naive as bestowing it on the communist …
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When Land Is History
by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media This winter I watched a new owner of the farm parcel next to mine bring in enormous Caterpillar equipment and land-levelers. He ripped out every living tree and bush. He changed the very contours of the land, flattening even the once rolling hills. Within days, arose a postmodern almond …
Remembering the Dead, from Selma
by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media I confess this is the first time in my life I will break the old Hellenic rule: ton tethnvêkota mê kakologein(speak no ill of the dead). That Gore Vidal was a cruel person is no excuse for not refraining from criticism after his recent death, but here I sin nonetheless. …
A Summer With Virgil
by Bruce S. Thornton Defining Ideas “To read the Latin & Greek authors in their original,” Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “is a sublime luxury.” Fortunately, for those who don’t read Greek and Latin, the great works of Classical literature are available in first-rate translations. The following five classics are some of the best works from …