History

2014: Year of Decision

by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine  This year we will see if America is still a center-right country, or if Obama’s two terms will mark a historic shift to the left. History and recent events give cause for optimism, subject, of course, to unforeseen events. The champions of big government, wealth redistribution through taxation and …

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Nelson Mandela, Western Saint

by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine  The passing of Nelson Mandela has been attended with the usual global encomia we have come to expect from those political leaders who have become international celebrities. Sometimes these extravagant praises and out-sized mourning surpass any real achievement. It is hard to find any justification in Princess Diana’s life …

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How Presidents Lie

It’s nothing new for a president to lie to us, but Obama’s style is unique. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online  In the past there have been all sorts of presidential fibbing. Some chief executives make promises that they know they probably cannot or will not keep. Before his reelection for his third term …

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Ignoring History: The Folly of Our Iran Pact

Dictatorships abandon treaties when they become inconvenient. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online  According to our recently proposed treaty with the Iranian government, Iran keeps much of its nuclear program while agreeing to slow its path to weapons-grade enrichment. The Iranians also get crippling economic sanctions lifted.  Share This

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Why Should We Study War?

Military history tells the story of human nature at its great heights and terrible lows. by Bruce S. Thornton // Defining Ideas  In the latter years of World War I, Winston Churchill met with the novelist and poet Siegfried Sassoon. Sassoon was a winner of the Military Cross––he single-handedly routed 60 Germans and captured a trench …

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The Political Debate We Need to Have

Today, we treat politics as a sport, but it’s really a conflict of ideologies between federalists and technocrats. by Bruce S. Thornton // Defining Ideas  The media and pundits treat politics like a sport. The significance of the recent agreement to postpone the debt crisis until January, for instance, is really about which party won and …

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How Historic Revisionism Justifies Islamic Terrorism

by Raymond Ibrahim // RaymondIbrahim.com  How important, really, is history to current affairs?  Do events from the 7th century—or, more importantly, how we understand them—have any influence on U.S. foreign policy today? By way of answer, consider some parallels between academia’s portrayal of the historic Islamic jihads and the U.S. government’s and media’s portrayal of contemporary Islamic …

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The Launch of the Freedom Academy

by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media  Today launches the Freedom Academy®, a project some 18 months in the making. In the present age, we need a meeting place where people can rediscover what freedom entails and appreciate the origins and role of liberty. The majority of Americans yearn for a rebirth of these values that have …

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Barack Obama and the Bad Ideas of Progressivism

by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine  Barack Obama’s serial gross incompetence has elicited all sorts of explanatory theories. He’s a closet socialist, an Alinskyite radical, a secret Muslim, or an anti-American internationalist. Though some of Obama’s words and deeds give support to all these speculations, I prefer a simpler explanation. Obama is a Progressive––not a …

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Surreal and Suicidal: Modern Western Histories of Islam

by Raymond Ibrahim // RaymondIbrahim.com  The full magnitude of the modern West’s ignorance of its own past recently struck me while rereading some early history books concerning the centuries-long jihad on Europe.   The historical narrative being disseminated today simply bears very little resemblance to reality. Consider some facts for a moment: A mere decade after …

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