2,346 words
Isolationism Reconfigured (1995) by Eric A. Nordlinger
Professor Nordlinger passed away before Isolationism Reconfigured was published, so he couldn’t promote it on CSPAN and other places. The book is also written in a turgid academic style. Those facts hampered the spread of isolationist ideas in the mid-1990s, unfortunately. (more…)
Portrait of Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper (1656). Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.
Portrait of Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper (1656). Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.
2,373 words
That was God’s judgment on the man who had set himself above his kind. — John Buchan, Greenmantle
Oliver’s army is here to stay.
Oliver’s army are on their way.
And I would rather be anywhere else than here today.
— Elvis Costello, “Oliver’s Army”
Although my scant knowledge of English history makes me ashamed to be called an Englishman, I have at least an idea of how that history has judged its more recent figures. Or have I? (more…)
1,624 words
Brian C. Wilson
Yankees in Michigan
East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2008
If you have the chance, visit the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum. The Museum’s collection is brilliant, and contains some of the best art from around the world, including works from ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece. This drives home the fact that no French or Italian art collector has scoured England, Australia, or Michigan for magnificent art. (more…)
2,101 words
Daniel Okrent
The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America
New York: Scribner, 2019
The Mayflower arrived at Plymouth 400 years ago this week. This monumental anniversary has largely gone unremembered. In the past, the Plymouth anniversary was a great event that drew our nation’s foremost orators to speak of the glories of America and its settlers. (more…)