Books

Gibbon, Guns and Government

Featured image In the course of writing Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon encountered Mohammed, who pursued the Jews with “implacable hatred” to the end of his life. The historian also called out Theodoric the Great, the Ostrogoth king who invaded Italy in 488 AD and “condescended to disarm the unwarlike natives of Italy, interdicting all weapons of offence, and excepting only a small knife for domestic use.” Call »

A Whitaker Chambers Xmas

Featured image A friend asked me to recommend a book about Whittaker Chambers as a Christmas gift for her smartly conservative daughter several years ago. Chambers stands at the center of an incredible drama and several fantastic books about him. There is still much to be learned from him and his case. Here I revisit and expand the list with a little help from the eminent historian Harvey Klehr: 1. Witness is »

Robert Wistrich revisited

Featured image Robert S. Wistrich was the Neuburger Professor of European and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the director of the university’s Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism. He may also have been the leading academic authority on anti-Semitism. Witness his histories A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism From Antiquity to the Global Jihad (2010) and From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, The Jews and Israel (2012). »

A Collier remembrance

Featured image When Peter Collier died in 2019, Lloyd Billingsley paid tribute to him with this remembrance. I added these personal recollections of his impact on me. I first met Peter in 1989 or 1990 when he came to the Twin Cities with David Horowitz to promote Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About the ’60s. Having just finished reading the book the day before, I went to see Peter and David at Macalester »

A Collier Reader

Featured image RFK Jr. is in the running for president of the United States, the office his father RFK might have won if he had not been assassinated on June 6, 1968. RFK Jr.’s uncle JFK did gain election to the White House before he was shot dead on November 22, 1963. That launched a murder mystery that continues to this day. Readers can get a fresh perspective from Peter Collier, co-author »

For those who have given us such a happy life

Featured image Writing about Edward Gibbon’s view of “Mahomet” and “Mahometans” reminded me of Montaigne. I thought it might be worthwhile to repeat my comments on Montaigne and his use of irony in his discussion of Islam. Please forgive the repetition or, if you remember what I had to say: Reader, pass by! The cultural left exerts a tyrannical force policing our speech. To take just one current exposition of the phenomenon, »

When Edward met Muhammad, take 2

Featured image I am grateful to Lloyd Billingsley for his account of Edward Gibbon’s encounter with Muhammad in the pages of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire via Robert Spencer’s The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS. This is nothing more than a long footnote to Lloyd’s post for readers who might be unfamiliar with the text of Gibbon’s monument to posterity or interested in a »

David Garrow’s book of the year

Featured image It’s that time of the year when respectable publications offer recommended reading for the coming year. You too can make a new year’s resolution to fill the gaps in your education. One such source is the Wall Street Journal Review’s annual compilation of “Who Read What” (better this year than last). In its World (or American) edition The Spectator’s December issue performs a comparable service in “The Spectator’s 2023 Books »

When Edward Met Muhammad

Featured image In his massive Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon was bound to encounter the Muslims and their prophet. Published in 1776, the great historian’s work proves relevant for current events in the Middle East. The sword, says Muhammad, is the key of heaven and hell. A drop of blood shed in the cause of God, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months »

Kissinger dies at 100

Featured image Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has died at 100. The New York Times obituary by David Sanger is posted here. Sanger’s obituary links to the statement announcing Kissinger’s death by his consulting firm. What a monumental American life he led. Ah, yes, the Times. In 2011 the Times Book Review featured Kissinger’s laudatory review of the new biography of Bismarck by Penn’s Jonathan Steinberg on page one. On my »

The persistence of Hayek

Featured image I was surprised to read what I thought was an exceedingly fair and illuminating review of two new books on Friedrich Hayek in the current (December 7) issue of the New York Review of Books. The review is by the financial historian Edward Chancellor. In “The Naturalist” he takes up Hayek: A Life, 1899–1950, by Bruce Caldwell and Hansjoerg Klausinger, and Liberalism’s Last Man: Hayek in the Age of Political »

“From the river to the sea”

Featured image The historian Jeffrey Herf is the Distinguished University Professor emeritus at the University of Maryland. Among the books he has written is Nazi Propaganda in the Arab World (published by Yale, now out of print). Professor Herf takes up the deep meaning of the Hamas charters of 1988 and 2017 in his learned American Purpose column “From the river to the sea.” He concludes: There is no precedent in modern »

Hope against hope

Featured image As I have mentioned a time or two before, the cultural left exerts a tyrannical force policing our speech. Witness the case of Elon Musk and X/Twitter. The cases can be multiplied endlessly. You don’t need my help on this score. The cause of free speech threatens to become the exclusive property of conservatives. Wherever the left holds sway, free speech is a dying or dead letter. The utopia implicit »

Thought for the day

Featured image Saul Bellow’s To Jerusalem and Back was published in 1976, but it is full of observations that bear on Israel’s current war. One line in the book has even become somewhat famous. I’m winding up this series of excerpts with a passage from pages 126-127 of the original hard cover edition: What is “known” in civilized countries, what people may be assumed to “know,” is a great mystery. Recently, a »

Thought for the day

Featured image Saul Bellow wrote To Jerusalem and Back after a visit of several months’ duration in 1975. Published in 1976 and still in print, it is full of observations that remain on point as Israel fights for its survival today. This passage is from pages 135-136 of the original hard cover edition: The 1973 war badly damaged their [i.e., the Israelis’] confidence. The Egyptians crossed the Suez Canal. Suddenly the abyss »

Thought for the day

Featured image Saul Bellow’s To Jerusalem and Back was published in 1976, but it is still in print and full of observations that bear on Israel’s current war. I quoted one passage from page 15 of the original hard cover edition here yesterday. This is from pages 25-26: Here in Jerusalem, when you shut your apartment door behind you you fall into a gale of conversation – exposition, argument, harangue, analysis, theory, »

Thought for the day

Featured image Saul Bellow visited Israel for several months in 1975. During his visit he kept a journal of his observations, his meetings, his conversations. Drawing on the journal, he published To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account in 1976. Having read it at the time, I have found one passage in particular to have stuck in my mind: And what is it that has led the Jews to place themselves, after »