Counter-Currents
  • Private Events
  • T&C
  • Contact
  • Webzine
  • About
  • Books
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Donate
  • Paywall
  • Crypto
  • RSS
    • Main feed
    • Podcast feed
    • Videos feed
    • Comments feed
  • Advertise

LEVEL2

Donate Now Mailing list
  • Webzine
  • About
  • Books
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Donate
  • Paywall
  • Crypto
  • RSS
    • Main feed
    • Podcast feed
    • Videos feed
    • Comments feed
  • Advertise
  • Recent posts

    • Football’s Race War

      Pox Populi

      1

    • VDARE Facing Mortal Threat

      Peter Brimelow

      2

    • Collin Cleary Interviewed on Richard Wagner

      Collin Cleary

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 534 Interview with Alexander Adams

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • The Union Jackal, May 2023

      Mark Gullick

      17

    • Biden and Bibi

      James J. O'Meara

      11

    • Forward with a Vengeance

      Tom Zaja

      1

    • Notes on Strauss & Husserl

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      Jim Goad

      23

    • The Honorable Cause: A Review

      Spencer J. Quinn

      8

    • George Friedman’s The Next 100 Years

      Thomas Steuben

      4

    • Remembering Oswald Spengler (May 29, 1880-May 8, 1936)

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      Jim Goad

      8

    • Remembering Louis-Ferdinand Céline (May 27, 1894–July 1, 1961)

      Greg Johnson

      12

    • Blood, Soil, Paint

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Céline’s Guerre

      Margot Metroland

      7

    • The Trial of Socrates

      Greg Johnson

    • Fields of Asphodel

      Tito Perdue

    • George Floyd and the “Color” of Revolution

      Stephen Paul Foster

      11

    • The Dakota Territory’s Indian Wars During the Civil War, Part 2

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • No, Really, Everything’s Fine!

      Gunnar Alfredsson

      18

    • Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      Jim Goad

      25

    • The Dakota Territory’s Indian Wars During the Civil War, Part 1

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • How Much Would Slavery Reparations Actually Cost?

      Beau Albrecht

      35

    • No Brexit This Way

      Mark Gullick

      8

    • Martinez Contra Fascism

      Thomas Steuben

      24

    • Úryvky z Finis Germania Rolfa Petera Sieferleho, část 2: „Věčný nacista“

      Rolf Peter Sieferle

    • A 5D Plan in 3D: Hitchcock’s Dial M For Murder

      James J. O'Meara

      16

    • After Waco

      Morris van de Camp

      18

    • Munchhausen: The Third Reich’s Wizard of Oz

      Steven Clark

      13

    • Nueva Derecha vs. Vieja Derecha Capítulo 1: Política y Metapolítica

      Greg Johnson

    • The Worst Week Yet: May 14-20, 2023

      Jim Goad

      14

    • The (So-Called) New York “Thought Criminals” & the “Intellectual Dark Web”

      Alex Graham

      9

    • Documenting the Decline

      Spencer J. Quinn

      7

    • Remembering Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813-February 13, 1883)

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Remembering Dominique Venner (April 16, 1935–May 21, 2013)

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Clash of the Billionaire Comic-Book Supervillains

      Jim Goad

      2

    • The Psychology of the Politically Correct

      Richard Knight

      65

    • Springtime in Tallinn

      Veiko Hessler

      13

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 6, Part 2: Conclusion

      Kenneth Vinther

      11

    • Remembering Julius Evola (May 19, 1898–June 11, 1974)

      Greg Johnson

      5

    • Clash of the Billionaire Comic-Book Supervillains

      Jim Goad

      22

    • On White Normie “Brainwashing”: A Reply to Kevin MacDonald, Paul Craig Roberts, & Other Dissidents, Part 2

      D. H. Corax

      11

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 6, Part 1: Conclusion

      Kenneth Vinther

      1

    • Úryvky z Finis Germania Rolfa Petera Sieferleho, část 1

      Rolf Peter Sieferle

    • On White Normie “Brainwashing”: A Reply to Kevin MacDonald, Paul Craig Roberts, & Other Dissidents, Part 1

      D. H. Corax

      48

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 5, Part 2: Democracy Against the People

      Kenneth Vinther

      2

    • Be On the Lookout

      Gunnar Alfredsson

      4

    • Not Pretending to Be Anything: Charles Bukowski

      Mark Gullick

      8

    • Librarians are Bad for Children

      Stephen Paul Foster

      24

  • Classics Corner

    • Cù Chulainn in the GPO:
      The Mythic Imagination of Patrick Pearse

      Michael O'Meara

      5

    • Remembering Dominique Venner
      (April 16, 1935 – May 21, 2013)

      Greg Johnson

      11

    • A Robertson Roundup: 
      Remembering Wilmot Robertson
      (April 16, 1915 – July 8, 2005)

      Margot Metroland

      13

    • Metapolitics and Occult Warfare

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Remembering Maurice Bardèche:
      October 1, 1907–July 30, 1998

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • The Power of Myth:
      Remembering Joseph Campbell
      (March 26, 1904–October 30, 1987)

      John Morgan

      11

    • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

      Trevor Lynch

      24

    • The Searchers

      Trevor Lynch

      29

    • Gabriele D’Annunzio

      Jonathan Bowden

      2

    • Remembering A. R. D. “Rex” Fairburn (February 2, 1904–March 25, 1957)

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Denis Kearney & the Struggle for a White America

      Theodore J. O'Keefe

      1

    • Posthuman Prospects:
      Artificial Intelligence, Fifth Generation Warfare, & Archeofuturism

      Christopher Pankhurst

      5

    • Earnest Sevier Cox:
      Advocate for the White Ethnostate

      Morris van de Camp

      15

    • Remembering Jack London
      (January 12, 1876–November 22, 1916)

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Remembering Robinson Jeffers:
      January 10, 1887–January 20, 1962

      John Morgan

      3

    • Remembering Pierre Drieu La Rochelle:
      January 3, 1893–March 15, 1945

      Greg Johnson

    • Remembering Rudyard Kipling (December 30, 1865-January 18, 1936)

      Greg Johnson

      10

    • Restoring White Homelands

      Greg Johnson

      34

    • Remembering Hinton Rowan Helper

      Spencer J. Quinn

      11

    • What’s Wrong with Diversity?

      Greg Johnson

      10

    • Redefining the Mainstream

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Edward Alsworth Ross:
      American Metapolitical Hero

      Morris van de Camp

      8

    • The Talented Mr. Ripley & Purple Noon

      Trevor Lynch

      19

    • Christmas & the Yuletide:
      Light in the Darkness

      William de Vere

      3

    • Thanksgiving Special 
      White Men Meet Indians:
      Jamestown & the Clash of Civilizations

      Thomas Jackson

    • Colin Wilson’s The Outsider

      Sir Oswald Mosley

      4

    • Dostoyevsky on the Jews

      William Pierce

      4

    • Jefferson &/or Mussolini, Part 1

      Ezra Pound

      5

    • I Listened to Chapo Trap House So You Don’t Have To

      Doug Huntington

      98

    • The Homeric Gods

      Mark Dyal

      13

  • Paroled from the Paywall

    • Politicizing Luz Long, Part I

      Clarissa Schnabel

      2

    • Breaking Beat: Reflections on The Rebel Set, a Masterpiece That Never Was

      James J. O'Meara

      1

    • If Hillary Had Won

      Stephen Paul Foster

      1

    • Nice Racism, Part 3

      Beau Albrecht

      1

    • Nice Racism, Part 2

      Beau Albrecht

      7

    • Nice Racism, Part 1

      Beau Albrecht

      5

    • Aristophanes’ Clouds, Part II

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Aristophanes’ Clouds, Part I

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 530 The Genealogy of Wokeism

      Counter-Currents Radio

      5

    • Patrick Bateman: “Literally Me” or a Warning?

      Anthony Bavaria

      9

    • British Sculpture, Part II

      Jonathan Bowden

      1

    • British Sculpture, Part I

      Jonathan Bowden

      2

    • The New Story

      Jocelynn Cordes

      21

    • Why Does Cthulhu Always Swim Left? Part 2

      Beau Albrecht

      1

    • Why Does Cthulhu Always Swim Left? Part 1

      Beau Albrecht

      11

    • Robert Rutherford McCormick, Midwestern Man of the Right: Part 2

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: Prophet of Eugenics and Race-Realism

      Margot Metroland

      11

    • In Defense of the White Union

      Asier Abadroa

    • Everything Everywhere All at Once: The Oscar Winner the System Loves

      Steven Clark

      32

    • Incels on Wheels: Jim Goad’s Trucker Fags in Denial

      Beau Albrecht

      17

    • The White Pill

      Margot Metroland

      10

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 528 Karl Thorburn on the Bank Crashes

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • Women Philosophers

      Richard Knight

      23

    • Stranger Things and Surviving in the Modern World

      Howe Abbott-Hiss

      2

    • The Fabulous Pleven Boys

      P. J. Collins

      2

    • Nuclear Families: Threads

      Mark Gullick

      4

    • Reviewing the Unreviewable

      Margot Metroland

      3

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 527 Machiavellianism & More

      Counter-Currents Radio

      2

    • The Machiavellian Method

      Greg Johnson

      11

    • My Breakout from the Modern World: The Hungarian Day of Honour Tour 2023, Part 2

      Tizenegy

      4

  • Recent comments

    • ncleapyear

      VDARE Facing Mortal Threat

      We need to get ourselves far, far away from the Chosen Ones and their sub-Saharan bioweapons.  Tall...

    • Domitian

      VDARE Facing Mortal Threat

      "Good faith effort to comply" - the older generation still has idyllic memories of a system where...

    • Antipodean

      Football’s Race War

      Great summary of the problem but what are we to do about it?  These people are like children. They...

    • Nicolas Bourbaki

      The Union Jackal, May 2023

      That's horrible. Speaking of movies I now can understand how "Transylvania" has been used to...

    • Jim Goad

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      Oh, I get it. But I also fear that we can purity-spiral ourselves to death. Even if there’s a Nazi-...

    • Enoch Powell

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      This country has become nothing more than a corporation whose prime purpose is to ensure the...

    • Sambo

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      I like Irvine Welsh, but he's always had that "please don't call me a racist" defensiveness about...

    • WayDown

      The Union Jackal, May 2023

      The two cases you cited took place a few years ago when there was more sanity. I'm not sure the...

    • Sandy

      Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      O cheer up folks. Now that euthanasia (as they call it) is legal, we need the Mizzys to remind the...

    • T Steuben

      Notes on Strauss & Husserl

      Reductionism is the scourge of our time. It inherently calcifies and thus kills the world. I reach...

    • Hamburger Today

      Martinez Contra Fascism

      One problem with your argument is that ‘Christianity’ as a major religion was constructive material...

    • SmithsFan84

      The Union Jackal, May 2023

      The heat would come down on someone who seriously harmed black home invaders in the U.K. but a few...

    • ArminiusMaximus

      Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      I did see on-line and saved somewhere a British NHS advertisement for euthanasia that they placed at...

    • SmithsFan84

      The Union Jackal, May 2023

      We also know (from UK T.V.'s Sapphire and Steel) that Transuranic heavy elements may not be used...

    • Mark Gullick

      The Union Jackal, May 2023

      I know why he looked so anxious. He didn't see a prank but a home invasion, and a home invasion by...

    • Antipodean

      Martinez Contra Fascism

      The Christians I know are a lot less likely to have swallowed the last quarter century of...

    • James Kirkpatrick

      The Union Jackal, May 2023

      Negro thought bubble (Ebonics-to-English translation):“Whitey, it has never been easier to legally...

    • Weave

      Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      My mom had lost the ability to speak years before her death, just one of so many losses throughout...

    • Aaron

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      I took an Intro to Secondary Education class in college in 1995. We were assigned to watch and write...

    • rurik

      The Union Jackal, May 2023

      So, there are still those who do not have the perception or eagle eyed view of say Jordan e.g."...

  • Book Authors

    • Beau Albrecht
    • Alain de Benoist
    • Kerry Bolton
    • Jonathan Bowden
    • Collin Cleary
    • Jef Costello
    • Savitri Devi
    • F. Roger Devlin
    • Buttercup Dew
    • Julius Evola
    • Jim Goad
    • Gregory Hood
    • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
    • Greg Johnson
    • Charles Krafft
    • Anthony M. Ludovici
    • Trevor Lynch
    • H. L. Mencken
    • J. A. Nicholl
    • James J. O’Meara
    • Christopher Pankhurst
    • Tito Perdue
    • Michael Polignano
    • Spencer J. Quinn
    • Fenek Solère
    • Irmin Vinson
    • Leo Yankevich
    • Francis Parker Yockey
    • Multiple authors
  • Webzine Authors

    Editor-in-Chief

    • Greg Johnson, Ph.D.

    Featured Writers

    • Beau Albrecht
    • Morris V. de Camp
    • Stephen Paul Foster, Ph.D.
    • Jim Goad
    • Alex Graham
    • Mark Gullick, Ph.D.
    • Greg Johnson, Ph.D.
    • Spencer J. Quinn

    Frequent Writers

    • Aquilonius
    • Anthony Bavaria
    • Alain de Benoist
    • Kerry Bolton, Ph.D.
    • Collin Cleary, Ph.D.
    • Jef Costello
    • F. Roger Devlin, Ph.D.
    • Richard Houck
    • Ondrej Mann
    • Margot Metroland
    • John Morgan
    • Trevor Lynch
    • James J. O’Meara
    • Kathryn S.
    • Thomas Steuben
    • Michael Walker

    Classic Authors

    • Maurice Bardèche
    • Jonathan Bowden
    • Julius Evola
    • Guillaume Faye
    • Ernst Jünger
    • Kevin MacDonald, Ph.D.
    • D. H. Lawrence
    • Charles Lindbergh
    • Jack London
    • H. P. Lovecraft
    • Anthony M. Ludovici
    • Sir Oswald Mosley
    • National Vanguard
    • Friedrich Nietzsche
    • Revilo Oliver
    • William Pierce
    • Ezra Pound
    • Saint-Loup
    • Savitri Devi
    • Carl Schmitt
    • Miguel Serrano
    • Oswald Spengler
    • P. R. Stephensen
    • Jean Thiriart
    • John Tyndall
    • Dominique Venner
    • Leo Yankevich
    • Francis Parker Yockey

    Other Authors

    • Howe Abbott-Hiss
    • Michael Bell
    • Buttercup Dew
    • Giles Corey
    • Bain Dewitt
    • Jack Donovan
    • Richardo Duchesne, Ph.D.
    • Emile Durand
    • Guillaume Durocher
    • Mark Dyal
    • Fullmoon Ancestry
    • Tom Goodroch
    • Andrew Hamilton
    • Robert Hampton
    • Huntley Haverstock
    • Derek Hawthorne
    • Gregory Hood
    • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
    • Alexander Jacob
    • Nicholas Jeelvy
    • Ruuben Kaalep
    • Tobias Langdon
    • Julian Langness
    • Travis LeBlanc
    • Patrick Le Brun
    • G A Malvicini
    • John Michael McCloughlin
    • Millennial Woes
    • Michael O’Meara
    • Christopher Pankhurst
    • Michael Polignano
    • J. J. Przybylski
    • Quintilian
    • Edouard Rix
    • C. B. Robertson
    • C. F. Robinson
    • Herve Ryssen
    • Alan Smithee
    • Fenek Solere
    • Ann Sterzinger
    • Robert Steuckers
    • Tomislav Sunic
    • Donald Thoresen
    • Marian Van Court
    • Irmin Vinson
    • Aylmer Wedgwood
    • Scott Weisswald
  • Departments

    • Book Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
    • TV Reviews
    • Music Reviews
    • Art Criticism
    • Graphic Novels & Comics
    • Video Game Reviews
    • Fiction
    • Poems
    • Interviews
    • Videos
    • English Translations
    • Other Languages
      • Arabic
      • Bulgarian
      • Croatian
      • Czech
      • Danish
      • Dutch
      • Estonian
      • Finnish
      • French
      • German
      • Greek
      • Hungarian
      • Italian
      • Lithuanian
      • Norwegian
      • Polish
      • Portuguese
      • Romanian
      • Russian
      • Slovak
      • Spanish
      • Swedish
      • Ukrainian
    • Commemorations
    • Why We Write
  • Archives
  • Top 100 Commenters
  • Private Events
  • T&C
  • Contact
Sponsored Links
Above Time Coffee Antelope Hill Publishing Paul Waggener IHR-Store Asatru Folk Assembly No College Club Imperium Press American Renaissance The Patrick Ryan Show Jim Goad The Occidental Observer
Print September 21, 2022 29 comments

Kathryn S.’s Recommended Military History Reading List

Kathryn S.

Horace Vernet, Napoleon at Jena: “En Avant!”

1,990 words

1. Homer, Iliad. W. C. Bryant, trans. Perth, Aus.: Imperium Press, 2019, 576 pp.: While everyone knows the story, few people today have actually read it. You can bet that almost every great military commander in Western history read it. Composed during the Greek “Dark Ages” and (probably) based on a real event, Iliad is an echo of the even earlier Bronze Age — of war’s power at its all-encompassing, glorious, and terrible pinnacle. There are many English translations out there (I would stay away from the prose versions, unless you cannot stand poetry). Alexander Pope’s rhyming classic is the beautiful text schoolchildren learned in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but there are more dynamic versions, like the blank verse of Robert Fagles; and more faithful versions, like Richmond Lattimore’s line-by-line translation. Imperium Press has also released a version that is a pleasure to read. Its opening Chorus chants to us: “O Goddess! sing the wrath of Peleus’ son, Achilles; sing the deadly wrath that brought woes numberless upon the Greeks . . .”

2. Thucydides, Landmark Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War. New York: Free Press, 1996, 748 pp.: This is the original military history from which all others have taken their cues. Thucydides was an Athenian commander during this fifth-century BC conflict — until he lost a battle and suffered banishment for it. Instead of sulking, he used his new free time to travel the Mediterranean and coolly document the long war that ended the Greek golden age. On the way, he came to the unsettling truth that a race’s greatness and ambition might also be its doom. Famous passages include Pericles’ Funeral Oration, an account of the Great Athenian Plague that killed 100,000 people, the Melian Dialogue, and the disastrous Sicilian Expedition. Some wars strengthen and unite peoples, while others cripple them for good. Thucydides chronicled the latter kind. The Landmark edition is the best for its extensive cross-referencing, maps, and annotations. The opening lines (yes, in third person) begin: “Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, beginning at the moment that it broke out, and believing that it would be a great war, and more worthy of relation than any that had preceded it.”

3. Veronica Fiorato, Anthea Boylston, & Christopher Knüsel, eds., Blood Red Roses: The Archaeology of a Mass Grave from the Battle of Towton. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2000, 294 pp.: Legacy Americans of Anglo-Saxon origin almost certainly have ancestors/relations who fought at the 1461 Battle of Towton — the bloodiest afternoon spent on English soil. There are lots of books about the Wars of the Roses, but this one is unique. A team of authors — archaeologists, anthropologists, and forensics experts — have together analyzed a mass grave located near the historical site of Towton. What they have found there is as fascinating as it is disturbing. They present readers with proof of the extreme brutality of medieval warfare. It is impossible not to marvel at the sheer nerve of the men who fought in such battles. The first words in this book are these: “There is at present a malign fashion to forget the past of our nation, or to study it only to regret it and apologise for it, to ourselves and other nations. This is ignorant stupidity.” Not for the faint of heart or queasy of stomach.

4. Rob Harper, Fighting the French Revolution: The Great Vendée Rising of 1793. Yorkshire, UK: Pen & Sword Military, 2019, 400 pp.: Historians and political philosophers have justly viewed the French Revolution as an event of cardinal significance. For those who have assumed that the French peasantry welcomed the Republic and its “egalitarian” reforms, this book on the Vendée provides corrective nuance. Its subject is a tough grassroots resistance movement that almost succeeded in its defiance of a nearly genocidal regime. As the Paris Terror peaked, and as the Republican government sought to enforce mass conscription in the countryside, thousands of aristocrats and peasants south of the Loire River Valley joined forces to create for God and Country an anti-Revolutionary army. When a group of Vendean militants asked the 20-year-old Comte Henri La Rochejaquelein to lead them, the nobleman replied, “I will show myself worthy. If I advance, follow me; if I flinch, cut me down; if I fall, avenge me.” A little-known struggle outside of France, the Rising was full of heroes and appalling crimes. At least 250,000 Vendean soldiers and civilians died at the hands of a pitiless establishment. An opening sentence of the book reads thusly: “The Paris Commune dominated the brutal politics of 1793, [but] . . . while life and death political struggles were underway in [the capital], the west of France . . . rose up en masse against the same revolution that had supposedly brought liberté, égalité and fraternité to the people.”

5. John Elting, Swords around a Throne: Napoleon’s Grande Armée. New York: De Capo Press, 1997, 769 pp.: If there was a silver lining to the French Revolution, it was the rise of “enlightened despot,” Napoleon Bonaparte. Love him or hate him, we must concede that Napoleon was one of the most interesting individuals to have lived in the last 500 years — at least. No military history list would be complete without including a book about this extraordinary man: a youth from an island backwater, to star artillery officer, to war hero, to general, to First Consul, to continental conqueror, to European Emperor, to exile, to returned savior — and finally, to a prisoner whose life’s end mirrored its beginning: one of thwarted ambition on yet another island backwater. There are many excellent books about Napoleon and the era he dominated. Elting’s book stands out for its focus on the Grande Armée, the force that Napoleon considered to be an extension of himself. Well-written and peppered throughout with Herbert Knötel’s uniform illustrations, Swords tells the story of how the Emperor transformed the French military from an ineffective laughingstock into the most feared army in the world — and then, how he ultimately destroyed it. The first sentence in this study is a quotation: “ ‘The Grande Armée fought hard, seldom cheered, and always bitched.’ ”

NB: Here is a clip from the 1970 film Waterloo that interprets Napoleon’s last battle and the tragic destruction of his Guard.

Waterloo ~ Imperial Guard Attack and its Doom 1080pWaterloo ~ Imperial Guard Attack and its Doom 1080p

6. Don Troiani & Brian C. Pohanka, Don Troiani’s Civil War. Mechanicsburg, Penn.: Stackpole Books, 1995, 191 pp.: The noble genre of war painting has become a lost art, but there is one contemporary artist who holds his own against the eighteenth and nineteenth-century masters of the majestic battlescape. Over the course of his career, Don Troiani has painted scenes from the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, and the War of 1812. His heart, however, belongs to the Civil War. The collection of paintings in this book shows Troiani’s ability to create epic scenes — off the page, the reader can almost hear the Rebel Yells, almost feel the burning of his eyes as gritty tears stream down chapped and powder-blackened cheeks — as well as his knack for more intimate character studies. He has researched the minutest details of every uniform he has illustrated, and the text supplementing his work is free of moralizing (there is only one black “soldier” pictured in the volume; it seems that the colored troops have failed to inspire him). This is a celebration of battlefield valor during the four most glorious and tragic years of American history. Some of the highlights include: Last Rounds, The Gray Wall, Lone Star, The High Watermark, Lions at the Round Top, Lee’s Texans, and The Last Salute. This part-history/part-art book begins with the dedication: “To the American soldiers, North and South, whose legacy is an inspiration and whose courage shall not go unrecorded . . .”

7. John Keegan, The Face of Battle. New York: Viking Press, 1983, 384 pp.: Keegan’s book does several things well. He discusses the importance and historiographical weaknesses of traditional military history. He differentiates between “battle” and “combat,” the former being a special type of warfare that combines pageantry and ritual into a theater of death. He then applies his methodology – of bringing battle to life by exploring the sensations and feelings of the soldiers who participated in them – to three case studies: Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme. What was it really like to muster together in the killing fields with one’s brother-comrades? What were the physical and psychological effects that the experiences of battle had on a soldier? How did he endure the thick “arrow-clouds” at Agincourt, the fiery comets of canister at Waterloo, and the “steel rain” of the Somme? Since its publication in 1976, military historians have almost unanimously adopted Battle’s approach. Among Keegan’s first statements is: “the sensations and emotions with which the participants [grappled], though relating to a situation which [may lie] in [the] distant” past, they remain “real enough” today, for these reactions have always been “a very powerful, if dormant, part of every human being’s make-up . . . [Such] feelings, after all, are the product of some of man’s deepest fears: fear of wounds, fear of death, fear of putting into danger the lives of those for whose well-being one is responsible.”

Honorable mentions go to Edward Daly’s Cannae: The Experience of Battle in the Second Punic War; Clark Savage’s King of All Things; Henry Lachouque’s The Anatomy of Glory: Napoleon and His Guard; and Modris Eksteins’ Rites of Spring.

I mean this list to be an ongoing process to which I will add and/or update in the future. Doubtless there are gaps, including the dearth of Eastern European studies, as well as a lack of twentieth-century conflicts (I admit that I find the latter mostly uninteresting). I will leave readers with one of my favorite war stories from an 1861 field near Manassas Junction, Virginia:

You can buy Tito Perdue’s Love Song of the Australopiths here.

Colonel Francis Bartow and his Georgia infantry had waited impatiently for a pitched battle all spring and summer long. Finally, at First Manassas, they got their wish.

In the thick of the fighting, Bartow received an urgent request for aid from the exposed Confederate right flank that now directly faced swarms of Union soldiers. Stubborn Federals had occupied “the house, fences, and outbuildings of the Edgar Matthews farm.” Although the colonel’s men were green, they were fierce, and Bartow obeyed the summons. The next quarter of an hour proved to be some of the “most difficult fighting the 8th Georgia endured during the war.” Round shot bounced a bloody swathe through its ranks. As Union troops hemmed them in from the front, right, and rear, a lieutenant went down with a leg wound, and Bartow’s horse was shot out from under him. The beleaguered Georgians fell back to Henry Hill.

Bartow realized that further “action was required, and upon seeing General [Gustave T.] Beauregard riding toward him, he asked, ‘What shall be done? Tell me, and if human effort can avail, I will do it!’” To this, Beauregard pointed toward a position occupied by murderous Northern artillery. “That battery should be silenced,” he said. With that, Bartow seized the regimental colors and led his men into the melée.

As he reached a fence line that separated the combatants, a bullet shattered his foot and knocked him to the ground. Staggering, he waved his sword and encouraged his men onward” — only to be hit once more, this time in the chest.[1] At that point, something extraordinary happened. In a scene both momentary and timeless, Bartow became an example of Western man ennobled by battle; of a warrior becoming strongest at his weakest.

Knowing his wound was fatal, the Colonel spent what breath he had left by shouting to his men a final, hoarse encouragement: “They have killed me, but never give up the field!” His men charged past the posts, captured the battery, and thus fulfilled the promise of their commander. I hope he heard the cheers of his Georgians over the “silence” of enemy guns before he heard nothing but the profound silence of eternity. Virtute et Valore.

*  *  *

Counter-Currents has extended special privileges to those who donate $120 or more per year.

  • First, donor comments will appear immediately instead of waiting in a moderation queue. (People who abuse this privilege will lose it.)
  • Second, donors will have immediate access to all Counter-Currents posts. Non-donors will find that one post a day, five posts a week will be behind a “Paywall” and will be available to the general public after 30 days.
  • Third, Paywall members have the ability to edit their comments. 
  • Fourth, Paywall members can “commission” a yearly article from Counter-Currents. Just send a question that you’d like to have discussed to [email protected]. (Obviously, the topics must be suitable to Counter-Currents and its broader project, as well as the interests and expertise of our writers.)
  • Fifth, Paywall members will have access to the Counter-Currents Telegram group. 

To get full access to all content behind the paywall, sign up here:

Paywall Gift Subscriptions

If you are already behind the paywall and want to share the benefits, Counter-Currents also offers paywall gift subscriptions. We need just five things from you:

  • your payment
  • the recipient’s name
  • the recipient’s email address
  • your name
  • your email address

To register, just fill out this form and we will walk you through the payment and registration process. There are a number of different payment options.

Note 

[1] Quotations from Don Troiani, Earl J. Coates, & Michael J. McAfee, Don Troiani’s Civil War Soldiers (Lanham, Md.: Stackpole Books, 2017), 65-6.

Related

  • The Honorable Cause: A Review

  • The Dakota Territory’s Indian Wars During the Civil War, Part 2

  • The Dakota Territory’s Indian Wars During the Civil War, Part 1

  • How Much Would Slavery Reparations Actually Cost?

  • Remembering Edward Gibbon

  • “Sojourners in the Desert . . . Glad of Each Delay”: Meditations on the Drylands, Part III

  • “Sojourners in the Desert . . . Glad of Each Delay”: Meditations on the Drylands, Part II

  • “Sojourners in the Desert . . . Glad of Each Delay”: Meditations on the Drylands, Part I

Tags

American Civil WarBattle of TowtonBlood Red RosesDon TroianiFighting the French RevolutionFirst ManassasFrancis BartowHistory of the Peloponnesian WarHomerJohn EltingJohn KeeganKathryn Smilitary historyNapoleon BonaparteNapoleonic Warsreading listsRob HarperSwords around a ThroneThe Face of Battlethe French Revolutionthe IliadThucydidesVendéeWars of the Roses

Previous

« Country Music:
The Truthful & Untruthful

Next

» The Ayatollah Answers

29 comments

  1. Lord Snooty says:
    September 21, 2022 at 2:59 pm

    The 1970 film Waterloo you reference is indeed splendid. Funnily enough, my favourite scene is The Duchess of Richmond’s Ball – the image of an ordered, hierarchical, polished society. A highlight is when a suitably arrogant Christopher Plummer makes his entrance as the Duke of Wellington, as the band breaks into Handel’s “See, the Conqu’ring Hero Comes!”.

    1. Kathryn S says:
      September 23, 2022 at 7:56 pm

      “Scum — nothing but beggars and scoundrels.” I guess they came through for His Grace when it counted.

      I appreciate the film, too, and it’s pretty balanced. I disliked Rod Steiger’s portrayal of Napoleon at first — seemed very “stagey” — but it’s grown on me.

  2. Hamburger Today says:
    September 21, 2022 at 3:23 pm

    Lovely piece.

    1. Kathryn S says:
      September 23, 2022 at 8:39 pm

      Thank you, Hamburger.

  3. Wilburn Sprayberry says:
    September 21, 2022 at 6:27 pm

    Wonderful article, as usual – thank you, Kathryn S.

    I have three recommendations for the list.

    The Encyclopedia of Military History, by the father & son team of Ernest & Trevor Dupuy. (There are several military history “encyclopedias” out there; this is the best, IMO.) At over a thousand pages, with maps, diagrams, drawings, it covers the entirety of military history from 3500 B.C. to the present, all continents, civilizations, wars, campaigns & major battles. It also has intelligent commentary on leading generals, admirals, weapons & tactical developments over the centuries.
    The West Point Atlas of American Wars, two volumes. edited by Brig. Gen. Vincent Esposito. A large “folio” type book with a unique approach: in contrast to the usual format of text supplemented by occasional maps, the West Point Atlas consists of one map page facing one text page throughout. Each map page (including multiple pages for many battles, hour by hour, showing changing positions of the opposing armies & their sub-units) is explained or narrated by the facing text page. This gives the reader a much clearer mental picture of what was physically happening on the battlefield, almost minute by minute in some cases. Don’t be fooled by the title. The 2nd volume includes ALL the campaigns of WWI & II, not just ones with American participation. It was one of the first English language histories to pay close attention to the eastern front in both wars. One weakness: its historiography is Cold War era, before the Russian archives were opened (for a while) after 1989, meaning its eastern front coverage relies almost exclusively on German sources.
    The West Point Atlas of Napoleonic Wars – same map narrated by text format as #2, leading (IMO) to a deeper, broader understanding of battles & campaigns.

    1. Kathryn S says:
      September 23, 2022 at 8:02 pm

      Thank you, Mr. Sprayberry!

      Vincent Esposito is a fabulous military resource, especially when it comes to maps and atlases. I have been toying with the idea of buying his Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars that is criminally out-of-print and now quite pricey. Maybe it will make the Christmas wish list.

  4. Traddles says:
    September 22, 2022 at 4:40 am

    Enemy at the Gates, by William Craig, is for me an unforgettable account of the Battle of Stalingrad.  The author interviewed Axis and Soviet survivors of the campaign, and used lots of other memoirs and primary sources.  The book came out in the 1970’s, but I believe it still gives a good general account of the battle, along with the harrowing personal stories.  I’ve only skimmed Antony Beevor’s widely-praised book which was written later, and which might have updated information.

    Craig’s book is similar in style to those written by Cornelius Ryan, in which several first-hand accounts from both sides are weaved into a general history of a battle–all very readable and informative.  As I recall, both Craig and Ryan were very sympathetic to men on both sides, and I doubt if such books would be approved by major publishers today.  The movie “Enemy at the Gates” wasn’t nearly as good as the book.  It’s a fictionalized, melodramatic account of a Soviet sniper who appears relatively briefly in Craig’s book.

    1. Kök Böri says:
      September 22, 2022 at 5:40 am

      I like those books based partially on the first-hand accounts written by Sir Max Hastings. His OVERLORD is a rather old book, but it is good. His book about the Vietnam War is interesting too. Soon his newest book about the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, THE ABYSS, will be published. Hasting´s book about the Falkland campaign of 1982 I found not so good, but it is only my personal view, of course. Just this war itself is not so interesting for me.

    2. Kathryn S says:
      September 23, 2022 at 8:19 pm

      Thank you for the additions, Traddles. I need the twentieth-century examples from others like you to round out the list. “Harrowing” is probably a good word for that catastrophic battle.

      I also appreciated your mentioning of Johnny Tremain in Mr. Hessler’s article. It has the most vivid literary recreation of the Boston Tea Party that I can think of, and I still shudder when I think of the passage about the molten metal burning Johnny’s hand.

      1. Traddles says:
        September 24, 2022 at 5:09 am

        Yes, and Johnny Tremain doesn’t shy away from the mob tactics used by some of the “Sons of Liberty” and others of the time–something which the more thoughtful Founders opposed.  Johnny is a very well-portrayed, complex character.

        It’s hard to stop with the recommendations!  For the “American Iliad”–the American Civil War–I believe you can’t go wrong with Shelby Foote and Bruce Catton, once very well-known but now maybe getting more forgotten in the avalanche of books on the subject.  They are both careful, balanced historians and great storytellers.

        Also, David Chandler is very good with his Campaigns of Napoleon and Marlborough as Military Commander.  I have only skimmed Churchill’s magnum opus about his great ancestor, but it seems to stand the test of time.  I know that Churchill isn’t such a popular figure in these circles, but he had his good points.

  5. Papinian says:
    September 22, 2022 at 4:54 am

    Thank you Kathryn.  One of the joys of Counter-Currents is the way in which you and other contributors provide recommendations like this.

     

    In the spirit of the the other comments, I will add a few of my own.  Christopher Logue’s reworking of the Iliad, War Music, is strangely compelling.  Solzhenitsyn’s Red Wheel is long and difficult but contains the best account of the First World War I have ever read.

    1. Kathryn S says:
      September 23, 2022 at 8:23 pm

      Thank you, Papinian — I will have to check out “War Music”; that sounds different and intriguing. The ability to put things to music is such a mysterious (to me) but lovely talent.

  6. Kök Böri says:
    September 22, 2022 at 5:45 am

    I read much more books about secret services, intelligence/counter-intelligence, spies, special operations forces, disinformation and psy-wars, and they maybe should not be listed here, because are off-topic. Of the specifically military/war books published in last two years I would recommend BLIND STRATEGIST by Stephen Robinson, Australian military historian. This is a critical book about Col. John Boyd and his military theories.

    1. Wilburn Sprayberry says:
      September 22, 2022 at 12:24 pm

      Thanks for the BLIND STRATEGIST recommendation. I was unaware of this critique of Boyd, who as you probably know has cult-status in the American military & with many people who consider themselves serious students of the military art. I’m getting BLIND STRATEGIST tomorrow. Having read several pro-Boyd books, it should be interesting.

      1. Kök Böri says:
        September 22, 2022 at 8:14 pm

        Yes, the book is good written. But it is very PC, with obligatory critics of the German generals, blaming them for the Holocaust, and with some praysing of the glorious Red Army. It contains also much criticism of Liddell Hart (whom I consider to be one of the most decent Englishmen of the 20th century) and Bill Lind, also much recpected by me.

        1. Wilburn Sprayberry says:
          September 23, 2022 at 3:06 pm

          Ah, thanks again. I also like Hart & Lind. Although there is some justifiable criticism about the self-serving nature of Wehrmacht memoirs (as if Allied memoirs are not, when they obviously are), & their tendency to over-blame Hitler for everything which went wrong, many modern historians have gone way too far in trying to debunk German military skill. In this they are following the lead of ((Gerhard Weinberg,)) who openly hates everything German because much of his family did not survive WWII.

          1. Kök Böri says:
            September 23, 2022 at 10:51 pm

            Here I would note that Martin van Creveld is of a very high opinion of die Wehrmacht in the WW2 and considers it the best war machine of that conflict. And, yes, van Creveld is a Jew.

  7. Sledgehammer says:
    September 22, 2022 at 12:24 pm

    Thank you for this list and for the compelling account of Col. Bartow’s heroics!

    I am greatly interested in Troiani’s paintings, but also in the other recommended books, including those by the commentators, especially the West Point publications and the exhaustive encyclopedia. Also, very interested in finding other versions of Homer and Thucydides.

    My recommendations:

    With the Old Breed, by Eugene Sledge. It is about two battles the marines fought in the Pacific, Peleliu and Okinawa.

    Goodbye, Darkness, by William Manchester. It recounts the author’s visit many years later to the battlefields of his youth in the Pacific.

    I thought Dispatches, by Michael Herr on Vietnam was pretty enjoyable.

    I hated The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer, semi-autobiographical novel about a battle in the Pacific, I loathed the Civil War novel Killer Angels, and did not much care for Marlantes’ Vietnam novel Matterhorn, or The Devil’s Adjutant.

    1. Kathryn S says:
      September 23, 2022 at 8:27 pm

      Thank you, Sledgehammer for the recs!

      Whenever I admit to fellow Civil War-buffs that I have not read Killer Angels I get incredulous gasps and head shakes. So, since you’re one of the only people I’ve come across who hasn’t been wowed by the book, I’m curious — what turned you off?

      1. Sledgehammer says:
        September 26, 2022 at 7:40 am

        Kathryn, I find it to be a colossal bore. I even tried it a second time in case it was my bedtime reading that didn’t do it justice. Same result. I think it was poorly written, not engaging at all. I would recommend you borrow (not buy it) if you want to give it a shot. I feel it was a waste of hard earned money. Not quite as bad as The Naked and the Dead, however. I have totally stricken off Norman Mailer from any future book purchases. Grossly overrated novelist.

        1. Kathryn S says:
          September 27, 2022 at 8:25 pm

          Ha, well thank you for your honesty, sir. I will take it under advisement and look for a library copy if I do decide to give it a shot. I did see most of Gettysburg, apparently based on the Shaara novel, and couldn’t get past Armistead’s speech before the Charge; I knew we were going to lose again — which might not be a good sign concerning the book. It’s too personal.

  8. Antipodean says:
    September 23, 2022 at 12:45 am

    Thank you for the reading sugestions.  I watched some of the clip from the Waterloo movie. Napoleon and Wellington are portrayed as serious but gallant leaders.  Bluecher appears to save Wellington’s bacon,   dressed in black, and is immediately heard exhorting his men (the Prussian army was quite undiverse in 1815) to raise the black flag, show no pity ( or be shot by the Marshall himself ) and naturally take no prisoners. History, or more lovingly-crafted anti-Prussian propaganda? As much as we may love Albion, her perfidious elite have great trouble remembering who truly helped them to establish the Pax Brittanica. 

    1. Kathryn S says:
      September 23, 2022 at 8:38 pm

      Indeed, Blücher’s timely arrival (and the French inability to corral him or cut him off) was key to Wellington’s victory and Napoleon’s loss. Whether he said that about “no pity,” I’m not sure, but Wellington’s much more humane, “I hope to God I’ve fought my last battle” is an interesting contrast/production decision. Whether praised or maligned, the Prussians have always had a reputation for a certain war-like ethos (and I think they would have been wearing “Prussian Blue” — a dark blue, but certainly not black as they wore in the film).

      1. Traddles says:
        September 24, 2022 at 5:48 am

        Yes, Wellington, despite his comment about the “scum of the earth,” took very good care of his men, as did Marlborough.  As another writer said, Wellington’s “words were harsh, but not altogether inaccurate.”  For a long time, the British had to recruit from society’s “dregs,” yet Wellington appreciated the positive qualities that they developed when molded by the Army. Elizabeth Longford wrote some good biographies of Wellington in case anyone is interested.

        Although I admire Napoleon for many things, he was responsible for a huge loss of life, French and otherwise.  He had so many gifts, yet maybe one deep flaw was that he did not know when to quit.

        1. Kathryn S says:
          September 24, 2022 at 3:46 pm

          Total Napoleon apologist: I plead guilty.

  9. S. Clark says:
    September 23, 2022 at 8:23 pm

    Well, the military history books are good, but one always wants to add more. I would suggest three:  J.F.C. Fuller’s The Decisive Battles of the Western World, ending with WWII. A. very thorough and thoughtful analysis of military leaders and battles, especially on what he considers the Great Captains of history, but also including the economic and social life behind the wars and armies.

     

    Another book I like is Len Deighton’s Blood, Tears and Folly, An Objective Look at WWII. Deighton has a very good analysis of weapons, weapons systems, and economic factors that influenced the war. It really deflates the concept WWII was a great crusade for freedom against fascism. He also explains how countries developed their weapons systems, and how these, as well as economics and minerals, determined battles and outcomes. For example, the allies always had oil, and the Axis powers were forever trying to get it and keep it. Also, Germany had excellent technology and scientific leadership, but the Nazi party stunted the full use of that, much as British lack of imagination led to them being wiped out at Singapore. Very nuts and bolts of war. Deighton says wars are won by the commander who has the best logistics and can deliver the equipment to his troops.

    Another book of Deighton, Blitzkrieg, has a masterful description of the 1940 campaign, and demonstrates how Blitzkrieg was as much an improvisation as masterful concept.

     

    Other comments: I didn’t much like Naked and the Dead either, although it had some good vignettes. Nor did I like The Killer Angels. To be honest, I thought it kind of bland and overly worshipful of the Confederate command. To be honest, I read Gettysburg, a 1951 young people’s book  (Landmark series) by MacKinlay Kantor, which was well written and offered diverse views of the battle, including civilians. Would have made a better movie.

    Before Stephen Ambrose wrote his Band of Brothers, he wrote Crazy Horse and Custer (1975), The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors. Good military and social history of whites and Indians, and no P.C. Very good prose.

    Waterloo? I finally saw the movie a year ago. It was tough to see when it was released, and did terrible at the box office, so was ditched. I enjoyed it, but wonder if Steiger’s Napoleon was all that great. Plummer was a good Wellington.

    I thought the Prussians were kind of neglected, but Waterloo was originally a four hour long movie, and was really chopped up for release. It would have done better as a TV movie, had they had them then.  Interesting cameo by Orson Welles as Louis XVII.  The film might have been done in two nights, as the Russian War and peace was, but that was a tough sell to movie theaters.

  10. Josh Smithson says:
    September 24, 2022 at 3:28 am

    MAX HASTINGS ABYSS: THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS 1962

    In 1983 the USSR reckoned that NATO’s Able Archer exercise was a smokescreen and that NATO was planning to deliver a genuine nuclear first strike. So we have to ask, was the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis “the most perilous event in history” or is Max Hastings just trying to boost his book sales? When compared with NATO’s Able Archer Exercise in 1983, we doubt the Cuban Missile crisis was “the most perilous event in history” but such a comparison may be splitting hairs as both events came perilously close to starting a nuclear war.

     

    Nevertheless, as to be expected now, Max Hastings certainly did his chosen non-fiction topic justice in this book whose subject matter would be riveting had you not read about it beforehand. The extent to which John F Kennedy took his NATO partners into his confidence during the Cuban crisis remains debatable. In 1962, the British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, colloquially known as SuperMac, was supposedly JFK’s chief confidant and adviser throughout the crisis. What were the consequences of that?

     

    For starters it meant that anything JFK (via the CIA) and/or SuperMac shared with MI6 about how best to manage the crisis was also shared with Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro via Kim Philby who was then in his heyday. In addition, Dr Richard Alan Fairclough (ex MI1 and a leading British scientist) was a close confidant of SuperMac. Richard Fairclough (aka Roger Burlington) featured in The Burlington Files series of fact based spy novels which were centred on the life and times of his son Bill Fairclough (aka Edward Burlington, MI6 codename JJ).

     

    The absence of some of the forgoing information in any book of note about the Cuban missile crisis might raise questions as to its completeness. On the other hand, one could ask were the Fairclough family involved in the seventies in the Haitian equivalent to the Cuban Bay of Pigs? Who knows but just because someone claims they know the truth is never the whole story! Best read Beyond Enkription, the only novel published to date in The Burlington Files series, to find out what has been disclosed to date on all these issues.

  11. S. Clark says:
    September 24, 2022 at 11:12 am

    A Max Hastings book I like is his The Korean War. Very well-written and informative, and it offers a lot of insights from the British point of view in the Commonwealth units fighting under the U.N….really under the Americans for all practical purposes.

  12. Josh Smithson says:
    September 25, 2022 at 5:25 am

    We love Deighton too and the Ipcress File is compelling reading, but I think Len Deighton’s most enthralling book by far was Funeral in Berlin. Deighton took it upon himself to counter both Ian Fleming and David Cornwell aka John Le Carré with what I call “raw espionage”. It is rumoured that on the few occasions they met, near nuclear arguments ensued. They had a lot in common as spy fiction writers although paradoxically while on occasion Deighton arguably produced the most realistic stuff he had no direct experience of military intelligence. In that vein it is a shame more espionage thrillers aren’t fact based. Courtesy of being factual extra dimensions are added. First, you can read about what’s in the novel in press cuttings and history books. Second, if even just marginally autobiographical, the author has the opportunity to convey his/her genuine hopes and fears as experienced in real life.

     

    An example of such a “real” thriller is Beyond Enkription, the first espionage novel or memoir in The Burlington Files series by Bill Fairclough (MI6 codename JJ) aka Edward Burlington. It’s worth mentioning in this context because, coincidentally, some critics have likened its protagonist JJ to a “posh and sophisticated Harry Palmer” and the first novel in the series is indisputably noir, maybe even Deightonesque but unquestionably anti-Bond. It’s worth checking out this enigmatic and elusive thriller. Not being a remake it may have eluded you! It’s a must for all spy illuminati so not being a remake I would be surprised if it had eluded you!

Comments are closed.

If you have Paywall access,
simply login first to see your comment auto-approved.

Note on comments privacy & moderation

Your email is never published nor shared.

Comments are moderated. If you don't see your comment, please be patient. If approved, it will appear here soon. Do not post your comment a second time.

  • Recent posts

    • Football’s Race War

      Pox Populi

      1

    • VDARE Facing Mortal Threat

      Peter Brimelow

      2

    • Collin Cleary Interviewed on Richard Wagner

      Collin Cleary

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 534 Interview with Alexander Adams

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • The Union Jackal, May 2023

      Mark Gullick

      17

    • Biden and Bibi

      James J. O'Meara

      11

    • Forward with a Vengeance

      Tom Zaja

      1

    • Notes on Strauss & Husserl

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      Jim Goad

      23

    • The Honorable Cause: A Review

      Spencer J. Quinn

      8

    • George Friedman’s The Next 100 Years

      Thomas Steuben

      4

    • Remembering Oswald Spengler (May 29, 1880-May 8, 1936)

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      Jim Goad

      8

    • Remembering Louis-Ferdinand Céline (May 27, 1894–July 1, 1961)

      Greg Johnson

      12

    • Blood, Soil, Paint

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Céline’s Guerre

      Margot Metroland

      7

    • The Trial of Socrates

      Greg Johnson

    • Fields of Asphodel

      Tito Perdue

    • George Floyd and the “Color” of Revolution

      Stephen Paul Foster

      11

    • The Dakota Territory’s Indian Wars During the Civil War, Part 2

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • No, Really, Everything’s Fine!

      Gunnar Alfredsson

      18

    • Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      Jim Goad

      25

    • The Dakota Territory’s Indian Wars During the Civil War, Part 1

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • How Much Would Slavery Reparations Actually Cost?

      Beau Albrecht

      35

    • No Brexit This Way

      Mark Gullick

      8

    • Martinez Contra Fascism

      Thomas Steuben

      24

    • Úryvky z Finis Germania Rolfa Petera Sieferleho, část 2: „Věčný nacista“

      Rolf Peter Sieferle

    • A 5D Plan in 3D: Hitchcock’s Dial M For Murder

      James J. O'Meara

      16

    • After Waco

      Morris van de Camp

      18

    • Munchhausen: The Third Reich’s Wizard of Oz

      Steven Clark

      13

    • Nueva Derecha vs. Vieja Derecha Capítulo 1: Política y Metapolítica

      Greg Johnson

    • The Worst Week Yet: May 14-20, 2023

      Jim Goad

      14

    • The (So-Called) New York “Thought Criminals” & the “Intellectual Dark Web”

      Alex Graham

      9

    • Documenting the Decline

      Spencer J. Quinn

      7

    • Remembering Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813-February 13, 1883)

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Remembering Dominique Venner (April 16, 1935–May 21, 2013)

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Clash of the Billionaire Comic-Book Supervillains

      Jim Goad

      2

    • The Psychology of the Politically Correct

      Richard Knight

      65

    • Springtime in Tallinn

      Veiko Hessler

      13

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 6, Part 2: Conclusion

      Kenneth Vinther

      11

    • Remembering Julius Evola (May 19, 1898–June 11, 1974)

      Greg Johnson

      5

    • Clash of the Billionaire Comic-Book Supervillains

      Jim Goad

      22

    • On White Normie “Brainwashing”: A Reply to Kevin MacDonald, Paul Craig Roberts, & Other Dissidents, Part 2

      D. H. Corax

      11

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 6, Part 1: Conclusion

      Kenneth Vinther

      1

    • Úryvky z Finis Germania Rolfa Petera Sieferleho, část 1

      Rolf Peter Sieferle

    • On White Normie “Brainwashing”: A Reply to Kevin MacDonald, Paul Craig Roberts, & Other Dissidents, Part 1

      D. H. Corax

      48

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 5, Part 2: Democracy Against the People

      Kenneth Vinther

      2

    • Be On the Lookout

      Gunnar Alfredsson

      4

    • Not Pretending to Be Anything: Charles Bukowski

      Mark Gullick

      8

    • Librarians are Bad for Children

      Stephen Paul Foster

      24

  • Classics Corner

    • Cù Chulainn in the GPO:
      The Mythic Imagination of Patrick Pearse

      Michael O'Meara

      5

    • Remembering Dominique Venner
      (April 16, 1935 – May 21, 2013)

      Greg Johnson

      11

    • A Robertson Roundup: 
      Remembering Wilmot Robertson
      (April 16, 1915 – July 8, 2005)

      Margot Metroland

      13

    • Metapolitics and Occult Warfare

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Remembering Maurice Bardèche:
      October 1, 1907–July 30, 1998

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • The Power of Myth:
      Remembering Joseph Campbell
      (March 26, 1904–October 30, 1987)

      John Morgan

      11

    • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

      Trevor Lynch

      24

    • The Searchers

      Trevor Lynch

      29

    • Gabriele D’Annunzio

      Jonathan Bowden

      2

    • Remembering A. R. D. “Rex” Fairburn (February 2, 1904–March 25, 1957)

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Denis Kearney & the Struggle for a White America

      Theodore J. O'Keefe

      1

    • Posthuman Prospects:
      Artificial Intelligence, Fifth Generation Warfare, & Archeofuturism

      Christopher Pankhurst

      5

    • Earnest Sevier Cox:
      Advocate for the White Ethnostate

      Morris van de Camp

      15

    • Remembering Jack London
      (January 12, 1876–November 22, 1916)

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Remembering Robinson Jeffers:
      January 10, 1887–January 20, 1962

      John Morgan

      3

    • Remembering Pierre Drieu La Rochelle:
      January 3, 1893–March 15, 1945

      Greg Johnson

    • Remembering Rudyard Kipling (December 30, 1865-January 18, 1936)

      Greg Johnson

      10

    • Restoring White Homelands

      Greg Johnson

      34

    • Remembering Hinton Rowan Helper

      Spencer J. Quinn

      11

    • What’s Wrong with Diversity?

      Greg Johnson

      10

    • Redefining the Mainstream

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Edward Alsworth Ross:
      American Metapolitical Hero

      Morris van de Camp

      8

    • The Talented Mr. Ripley & Purple Noon

      Trevor Lynch

      19

    • Christmas & the Yuletide:
      Light in the Darkness

      William de Vere

      3

    • Thanksgiving Special 
      White Men Meet Indians:
      Jamestown & the Clash of Civilizations

      Thomas Jackson

    • Colin Wilson’s The Outsider

      Sir Oswald Mosley

      4

    • Dostoyevsky on the Jews

      William Pierce

      4

    • Jefferson &/or Mussolini, Part 1

      Ezra Pound

      5

    • I Listened to Chapo Trap House So You Don’t Have To

      Doug Huntington

      98

    • The Homeric Gods

      Mark Dyal

      13

  • Paroled from the Paywall

    • Politicizing Luz Long, Part I

      Clarissa Schnabel

      2

    • Breaking Beat: Reflections on The Rebel Set, a Masterpiece That Never Was

      James J. O'Meara

      1

    • If Hillary Had Won

      Stephen Paul Foster

      1

    • Nice Racism, Part 3

      Beau Albrecht

      1

    • Nice Racism, Part 2

      Beau Albrecht

      7

    • Nice Racism, Part 1

      Beau Albrecht

      5

    • Aristophanes’ Clouds, Part II

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Aristophanes’ Clouds, Part I

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 530 The Genealogy of Wokeism

      Counter-Currents Radio

      5

    • Patrick Bateman: “Literally Me” or a Warning?

      Anthony Bavaria

      9

    • British Sculpture, Part II

      Jonathan Bowden

      1

    • British Sculpture, Part I

      Jonathan Bowden

      2

    • The New Story

      Jocelynn Cordes

      21

    • Why Does Cthulhu Always Swim Left? Part 2

      Beau Albrecht

      1

    • Why Does Cthulhu Always Swim Left? Part 1

      Beau Albrecht

      11

    • Robert Rutherford McCormick, Midwestern Man of the Right: Part 2

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: Prophet of Eugenics and Race-Realism

      Margot Metroland

      11

    • In Defense of the White Union

      Asier Abadroa

    • Everything Everywhere All at Once: The Oscar Winner the System Loves

      Steven Clark

      32

    • Incels on Wheels: Jim Goad’s Trucker Fags in Denial

      Beau Albrecht

      17

    • The White Pill

      Margot Metroland

      10

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 528 Karl Thorburn on the Bank Crashes

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • Women Philosophers

      Richard Knight

      23

    • Stranger Things and Surviving in the Modern World

      Howe Abbott-Hiss

      2

    • The Fabulous Pleven Boys

      P. J. Collins

      2

    • Nuclear Families: Threads

      Mark Gullick

      4

    • Reviewing the Unreviewable

      Margot Metroland

      3

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 527 Machiavellianism & More

      Counter-Currents Radio

      2

    • The Machiavellian Method

      Greg Johnson

      11

    • My Breakout from the Modern World: The Hungarian Day of Honour Tour 2023, Part 2

      Tizenegy

      4

  • Recent comments

    • ncleapyear

      VDARE Facing Mortal Threat

      We need to get ourselves far, far away from the Chosen Ones and their sub-Saharan bioweapons.  Tall...

    • Domitian

      VDARE Facing Mortal Threat

      "Good faith effort to comply" - the older generation still has idyllic memories of a system where...

    • Antipodean

      Football’s Race War

      Great summary of the problem but what are we to do about it?  These people are like children. They...

    • Nicolas Bourbaki

      The Union Jackal, May 2023

      That's horrible. Speaking of movies I now can understand how "Transylvania" has been used to...

    • Jim Goad

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      Oh, I get it. But I also fear that we can purity-spiral ourselves to death. Even if there’s a Nazi-...

    • Enoch Powell

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      This country has become nothing more than a corporation whose prime purpose is to ensure the...

    • Sambo

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      I like Irvine Welsh, but he's always had that "please don't call me a racist" defensiveness about...

    • WayDown

      The Union Jackal, May 2023

      The two cases you cited took place a few years ago when there was more sanity. I'm not sure the...

    • Sandy

      Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      O cheer up folks. Now that euthanasia (as they call it) is legal, we need the Mizzys to remind the...

    • T Steuben

      Notes on Strauss & Husserl

      Reductionism is the scourge of our time. It inherently calcifies and thus kills the world. I reach...

    • Hamburger Today

      Martinez Contra Fascism

      One problem with your argument is that ‘Christianity’ as a major religion was constructive material...

    • SmithsFan84

      The Union Jackal, May 2023

      The heat would come down on someone who seriously harmed black home invaders in the U.K. but a few...

    • ArminiusMaximus

      Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      I did see on-line and saved somewhere a British NHS advertisement for euthanasia that they placed at...

    • SmithsFan84

      The Union Jackal, May 2023

      We also know (from UK T.V.'s Sapphire and Steel) that Transuranic heavy elements may not be used...

    • Mark Gullick

      The Union Jackal, May 2023

      I know why he looked so anxious. He didn't see a prank but a home invasion, and a home invasion by...

    • Antipodean

      Martinez Contra Fascism

      The Christians I know are a lot less likely to have swallowed the last quarter century of...

    • James Kirkpatrick

      The Union Jackal, May 2023

      Negro thought bubble (Ebonics-to-English translation):“Whitey, it has never been easier to legally...

    • Weave

      Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      My mom had lost the ability to speak years before her death, just one of so many losses throughout...

    • Aaron

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      I took an Intro to Secondary Education class in college in 1995. We were assigned to watch and write...

    • rurik

      The Union Jackal, May 2023

      So, there are still those who do not have the perception or eagle eyed view of say Jordan e.g."...

  • Book Authors

    • Beau Albrecht
    • Alain de Benoist
    • Kerry Bolton
    • Jonathan Bowden
    • Collin Cleary
    • Jef Costello
    • Savitri Devi
    • F. Roger Devlin
    • Buttercup Dew
    • Julius Evola
    • Jim Goad
    • Gregory Hood
    • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
    • Greg Johnson
    • Charles Krafft
    • Anthony M. Ludovici
    • Trevor Lynch
    • H. L. Mencken
    • J. A. Nicholl
    • James J. O’Meara
    • Christopher Pankhurst
    • Tito Perdue
    • Michael Polignano
    • Spencer J. Quinn
    • Fenek Solère
    • Irmin Vinson
    • Leo Yankevich
    • Francis Parker Yockey
    • Multiple authors
  • Webzine Authors

    Editor-in-Chief

    • Greg Johnson, Ph.D.

    Featured Writers

    • Beau Albrecht
    • Morris V. de Camp
    • Stephen Paul Foster, Ph.D.
    • Jim Goad
    • Alex Graham
    • Mark Gullick, Ph.D.
    • Greg Johnson, Ph.D.
    • Spencer J. Quinn

    Frequent Writers

    • Aquilonius
    • Anthony Bavaria
    • Alain de Benoist
    • Kerry Bolton, Ph.D.
    • Collin Cleary, Ph.D.
    • Jef Costello
    • F. Roger Devlin, Ph.D.
    • Richard Houck
    • Ondrej Mann
    • Margot Metroland
    • John Morgan
    • Trevor Lynch
    • James J. O’Meara
    • Kathryn S.
    • Thomas Steuben
    • Michael Walker

    Classic Authors

    • Maurice Bardèche
    • Jonathan Bowden
    • Julius Evola
    • Guillaume Faye
    • Ernst Jünger
    • Kevin MacDonald, Ph.D.
    • D. H. Lawrence
    • Charles Lindbergh
    • Jack London
    • H. P. Lovecraft
    • Anthony M. Ludovici
    • Sir Oswald Mosley
    • National Vanguard
    • Friedrich Nietzsche
    • Revilo Oliver
    • William Pierce
    • Ezra Pound
    • Saint-Loup
    • Savitri Devi
    • Carl Schmitt
    • Miguel Serrano
    • Oswald Spengler
    • P. R. Stephensen
    • Jean Thiriart
    • John Tyndall
    • Dominique Venner
    • Leo Yankevich
    • Francis Parker Yockey

    Other Authors

    • Howe Abbott-Hiss
    • Michael Bell
    • Buttercup Dew
    • Giles Corey
    • Bain Dewitt
    • Jack Donovan
    • Richardo Duchesne, Ph.D.
    • Emile Durand
    • Guillaume Durocher
    • Mark Dyal
    • Fullmoon Ancestry
    • Tom Goodroch
    • Andrew Hamilton
    • Robert Hampton
    • Huntley Haverstock
    • Derek Hawthorne
    • Gregory Hood
    • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
    • Alexander Jacob
    • Nicholas Jeelvy
    • Ruuben Kaalep
    • Tobias Langdon
    • Julian Langness
    • Travis LeBlanc
    • Patrick Le Brun
    • G A Malvicini
    • John Michael McCloughlin
    • Millennial Woes
    • Michael O’Meara
    • Christopher Pankhurst
    • Michael Polignano
    • J. J. Przybylski
    • Quintilian
    • Edouard Rix
    • C. B. Robertson
    • C. F. Robinson
    • Herve Ryssen
    • Alan Smithee
    • Fenek Solere
    • Ann Sterzinger
    • Robert Steuckers
    • Tomislav Sunic
    • Donald Thoresen
    • Marian Van Court
    • Irmin Vinson
    • Aylmer Wedgwood
    • Scott Weisswald
  • Departments

    • Book Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
    • TV Reviews
    • Music Reviews
    • Art Criticism
    • Graphic Novels & Comics
    • Video Game Reviews
    • Fiction
    • Poems
    • Interviews
    • Videos
    • English Translations
    • Other Languages
      • Arabic
      • Bulgarian
      • Croatian
      • Czech
      • Danish
      • Dutch
      • Estonian
      • Finnish
      • French
      • German
      • Greek
      • Hungarian
      • Italian
      • Lithuanian
      • Norwegian
      • Polish
      • Portuguese
      • Romanian
      • Russian
      • Slovak
      • Spanish
      • Swedish
      • Ukrainian
    • Commemorations
    • Why We Write
  • Archives
  • Top 100 Commenters
Sponsored Links
Above Time Coffee Antelope Hill Publishing Paul Waggener IHR-Store Asatru Folk Assembly No College Club Imperium Press American Renaissance The Patrick Ryan Show Jim Goad The Occidental Observer
Donate Now Mailing list
Books for sale
  • The Trial of Socrates
  • Fields of Asphodel
  • El Manifiesto Nacionalista Blanco
  • An Artist of the Right
  • Ernst Jünger
  • Reuben
  • The Partisan
  • Trevor Lynch’s Classics of Right-Wing Cinema
  • The Enemy of Europe
  • Imperium
  • Reactionary Modernism
  • Manifesto del Nazionalismo Bianco
  • O Manifesto Nacionalista Branco
  • Vade Mecum
  • Whiteness: The Original Sin
  • Space Vixen Trek Episode 17: Tomorrow the Stars
  • The Year America Died
  • Passing the Buck
  • Mysticism After Modernism
  • Gold in the Furnace
  • Defiance
  • Forever & Ever
  • Wagner’s Ring & the Germanic Tradition
  • Resistance
  • Materials for All Future Historians
  • Love Song of the Australopiths
  • White Identity Politics
  • Here’s the Thing
  • Trevor Lynch: Part Four of the Trilogy
  • Graduate School with Heidegger
  • It’s Okay to Be White
  • The World in Flames
  • The White Nationalist Manifesto
  • From Plato to Postmodernism
  • The Gizmo
  • Return of the Son of Trevor Lynch’s CENSORED Guide to the Movies
  • Toward a New Nationalism
  • The Smut Book
  • The Alternative Right
  • My Nationalist Pony
  • Dark Right: Batman Viewed From the Right
  • The Philatelist
  • Confessions of an Anti-Feminist
  • East and West
  • Though We Be Dead, Yet Our Day Will Come
  • White Like You
  • Numinous Machines
  • Venus and Her Thugs
  • Cynosura
  • North American New Right, vol. 2
  • You Asked For It
  • More Artists of the Right
  • Extremists: Studies in Metapolitics
  • The Homo & the Negro
  • Rising
  • The Importance of James Bond
  • In Defense of Prejudice
  • Confessions of a Reluctant Hater (2nd ed.)
  • The Hypocrisies of Heaven
  • Waking Up from the American Dream
  • Green Nazis in Space!
  • Truth, Justice, and a Nice White Country
  • Heidegger in Chicago
  • End of an Era: Mad Men & the Ordeal of Civility
  • Sexual Utopia in Power
  • What is a Rune? & Other Essays
  • Son of Trevor Lynch’s White Nationalist Guide to the Movies
  • The Lightning & the Sun
  • The Eldritch Evola
  • Western Civilization Bites Back
  • New Right vs. Old Right
  • Journey Late at Night: Poems and Translations
  • The Non-Hindu Indians & Indian Unity
  • I do not belong to the Baader-Meinhof Group
  • Pulp Fascism
  • The Lost Philosopher
  • Trevor Lynch’s A White Nationalist Guide to the Movies
  • And Time Rolls On
  • Artists of the Right: Resisting Decadence
  • North American New Right, Vol. 1
  • Some Thoughts on Hitler
  • Tikkun Olam and Other Poems
  • Summoning the Gods
  • Taking Our Own Side
  • Reuben
  • The Node
  • The New Austerities
  • Morning Crafts
  • The Passing of a Profit & Other Forgotten Stories
Copyright © 2023 Counter-Currents Publishing, Ltd.

Paywall Access





Please enter your email address. You will receive mail with link to set new password.

Edit your comment