History
June 11, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Wilfred McClay holds the Victor Davis Hanson Chair in Classical History and Western Civilization at Hillsdale College. He is the author of Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story and several related volumes as well as the co-editor of Jewish Roots of American Liberty: The Impact of Hebraic Ideas on the American Story, all published by Encounter Books. After Gordon Wood — the most prominent historian of
»
June 10, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Gordon Wood was our great historian of the founding era. He was killed by a driver who hit him while he was walking this past Sunday afternoon. His death at the age of 92 represents a great loss to our country and our culture. I hope to have a few words about him from Professor Wilfred McClay to post on Power Line some time soon. AEI called on Professor Wood
»
June 9, 2026 — Scott Johnson
The Israeli Air Force attacked the USS Liberty to devastating effect on day four of the six-day war in 1967. Michael Oren covers the attack in meticulous detail at pages 262-271 along with the related footnotes at pages 388-390 in Six Days of War (2002). He calls this section of the book Anatomy of an Accident. It was an utterly tragic friendly fire incident that is not uncommon in war.
»
June 6, 2026 — Scott Johnson
You undoubtedly saw the actor Charles Durning in what might have been a favorite movie or two, including such gems as The Sting, Dog Day Afternoon, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and several others. Those just happen to be my favorite of his films. Durning died in 2012 at the age of 89. His accessible Variety obituary is posted online here. Durning was also a decorated Army vet who served
»
June 6, 2026 — Scott Johnson
My college classmate John Floberg retired after a distinguished career in neurology. We took Professor Peter Bien’s freshman seminar on Politics and the Novel together during our first term. John is originally from Chicago but we reconnected in the Twin Cities through Power Line 40 years after our studies with Professor Bien. Last year John wrote “Doorstops” for us. Following in a family tradition, John served as a commissioned Navy
»
June 1, 2026 — Scott Johnson
A few weeks ago I decried TCM’s glaring blind spot for Communism in connection with its broadcast of Saul Turrell’s Oscar-winning 1979 documentary Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist. Introducing the film, host Dave Karger referred to difficulties in Robeson’s career as a result of his devotion to “civil rights.” The documentary is posted here. I haven’t double checked to confirm that it covers Robeson’s trips to the Soviet Union.
»
May 30, 2026 — John Hinderaker
This year we are celebrating the 250th anniversary of our country’s founding. While most attention is understandably on the Declaration and the Revolution, it is a golden opportunity to remember the history of our nation as a whole. And America’s history is, in great part, the history of its regions, states and towns. Too often, those histories are ignored in favor of the national narrative. This is why American Experiment
»
May 30, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Reading Edmund Burke as a college freshman was a transformative experience for me. I am thinking specifically of his Reflections on the Revolution in France, but other of his works also had a deep impact on me. In this passage of his Letter to a Member of the National Assembly (1791), he restates the wisdom of the ancients for modern man: Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion
»
May 28, 2026 — Scott Johnson
“We’re caught in a trap,” Elvis Presley sang in “Suspicious Minds.” The trap then was jealousy. The trap everyone is talking about now — even China’s Xi Jinping found it of use — is the so-called “Thucydides trap.” Thucycides wrote the classic history of the Peloponessian War. Yale’s late, great teacher Donald Kagan wrote a four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War that is a standard in the field. All four
»
May 26, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday I posted the full video of Aaron MacLean interviewing Niall Ferguson for Aaron’s School of War podcast in “The rise of anti-history.” As I always do, I watched the video its entirety before recommending it here. You had to watch it to the end to hear Aaron rejecting the “anti-history” in which we are suffocating. He did so with an anecdote that powerfully recalled his father. In case you
»
May 25, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Students of ancient history may recall that the New York Times played a familiar role in the rise of Fidel Castro before he overthrew the Batista regime. The paper supported “Señor Castro” with the rosy tint supplied by reporter Herbert Matthews. (“Señor Castro” is how Matthews referred to him.) Matthews’s work is accessible in the archive maintained at the Times site online. This brief summary provides a useful reminder of
»
May 25, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Aaron MacLean is the host of the School of War podcast, national security analyst for CBS News, and a columnist for the Free Press. He was a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Hudson Institute. Before that, he worked on Capitol Hill as senior foreign policy advisor and legislative director to Senator Tom Cotton and served on active duty as a U.S. Marine for seven
»
May 25, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Today remember and honor all those who died in military service to the United States. Leo Thorsness is the Minnesota native who was awarded the Medal of Honor for unbelievable heroics in aerial combat over North Vietnam in April 1967. Within a few days of his heroics on the Medal of Honor mission, Col. Thorsness was shot down over North Vietnam and taken into captivity. In captivity he was tortured
»
May 14, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Christopher Hitchens told the story of “Jefferson Versus the Muslim Pirates” in a 2007 City Journal essay. Hitchens cited several books on the subject including Michael Oren’s then just-published account in his magisterial Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present. Now comes historian Martin Kramer — Walter P. Stern Fellow at the Washington Institute and author of one of its most widely read monographs,
»
May 10, 2026 — Scott Johnson
I love the TCM cable channel, but it has a glaring blind spot for Communism. Last week it put that glaring blind spot on display in its broadcast of Saul Turrell’s Oscar-winning 1979 documentary Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist. Introducing the film, host Dave Karger referred to difficulties in Robeson’s career as a result of his devotion to “civil rights.” The documentary is posted here. I haven’t double checked
»
May 9, 2026 — Scott Johnson
In his famous 1855 letter to his old friend Joshua Speed, Abraham Lincoln explained (emphases in original): I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor or degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that “all men are
»
May 5, 2026 — John Hinderaker
This, via InstaPundit, is appalling: That much of our elite hates the country, for farcially false reasons taught to them by ~traitors ("The Comanche riders were PEACEFUL, before we told them of war!!!") Is a very serious problem. No punch line. This has to be changed entirely. https://t.co/JQdlUlfSSL — Wilfred Reilly (@wil_da_beast630) May 4, 2026 It is no surprise that those who trust our education establishment are the most ignorant.
»
