World Order, Under Siege?
by Victor Davis Hanson Defining Ideas What seems sometimes incomprehensible in the contemporary world makes perfect sense — if we pause and study a little history. Share This
History
Explaining the Democrats’ Success
by Bruce Thornton FrontPage Magazine The election postmortem has identified all manner of causes for the Republicans’ defeat, from the “woman problem” and the “Hispanic problem,” as Peggy Noonan put it, to Romney’s fat cat persona and his inept campaign. But there’s a simpler reason, one consistent with the critics of democracy starting in ancient
Sophocles in Benghazi
by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media What separated the great Athenian tragedian Sophocles from dozens of his contemporaries — now mere names attached to fragments and quotations — were his unmatched characters, an Ajax, Antigone, or Oedipus whose proverbially fatal flaws ultimately led to their own self-destruction. Share This
One Nation, Under God?
by Bruce Thornton Defining Ideas The role of religion in American social and political life is an ever-present element in our civic conversation. The recent controversy over the contraception mandate ignited a smoldering conflict over just this issue. Share This
The New Reactionaries
by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Starting in the 1930s and continuing after the war, the Democrats offered a liberal critique of, or perhaps enhancement to, the Republican vision of rugged individualism. A modern American state now had the capital and the moral ambition to smooth the rougher edges of capitalism by insisting on
Are We Doomed?
by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Sometimes societies find themselves in pernicious cycles in which the perceived medicine seems worse than the known disease. The Roman satirist Juvenal lamented the ill effects of free food and free entertainment for the masses (“bread and circuses”) in part because he knew there was no remedy for
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.
The Muddle East
by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online No one has any idea what the Middle East will look like next year, much less in five years — especially the revolutionary players themselves. Share This
The Media’s Racial Prison
by Bruce Thornton Frontpage Magazine Two incidents last week suggest once more that our confused, hypocritical, and politicized notions of race and relations will play a huge role in the presidential election. In the first, Virginia state senator L. Louise Lucas, part of Obama’s “Truth Team” campaigning for the president in Virginia, told a radio