History
February 26, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Thinking about Leo Thorsness when I posted Tom West’s message about Royce Williams yesterday, I inserted the “Air Force” instead of “Navy” as the branch of the jet accompanying Williams on his Medal of Honor mission. Mr. Miller served under the command of Williams in the Navy. Of course, he knows what branch Williams and his colleague were serving in at the time of the dogfight. The mistake was mine.
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February 25, 2026 — Scott Johnson
The recognition of American heroes constituted perhaps the most telling highlight of President Trump’s State of the Union Address last night. Among them was Royce Williams and the award of a long overdue Medal of Honor for his display of valor during the Korean War. Kate Odell notes it in the Wall Street Journal column “A Medal of Honor for Royce Williams.” Earlier today Tom West of Hutchinson, Minnesota wrote
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February 22, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Nathan Pinkoski is a fellow at the Center for Renewing America and at the Institute for Philosophy, Technology, and Politics. He is the best young writer on politics I know of. Everything he writes is worth reading. His Substack site is Lament for the Nations. In his Lament post “The veil is torn,” Pinkoski noted the publication of a new edition of Jean Raspail’s dystopian novel The Camp of the
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February 22, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Today we celebrate the anniversary of the birth of George Washington. Of all the great men of the revolutionary era to whom we owe our freedom, Washington’s greatness was the rarest and the most needed. At this remove in time, it is also the hardest to comprehend. Take, for example, Washington’s contribution to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Washington’s mere presence lent the undertaking and its handiwork the legitimacy that
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February 20, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Reader Dave Norris writes in response to “The other face of Jesse Jackson”. Mr. Norris writes to share a memory of his own close encounter of the Reverend kind: * * * * * Your sentiment that the “chorus of warm praise” for “the Reverend” Jackson “doesn’t comport with what I remember about him” struck a nerve with me. While attending college in San Diego after my service in the
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February 19, 2026 — Scott Johnson
The death of Jesse Jackson has elicited a chorus of warm praise for his life and works. However, it doesn’t comport with what I remember about him. If you too want to recall a few of the lowlights, I suggest you turn to the profile of Jackson preserved here at the Horowitz Freedom Center’s Discover the Networks (“the only resource of its kind”). I remember having breakfast with David Horowitz
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February 18, 2026 — Scott Johnson
I knew nothing about Lionel Shriver when I first wrote about her on Power Line in 2016. Since then I’ve come to enjoy her political commentary at The Free Press and elsewhere. She is the author, most recently, of the just-published A Better Life and, most famously, We Need To Talk About Kevin. Anticipating her new novel, Publishers Weekly published a profile of her late last year. Vaguely remembering I
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February 16, 2026 — Scott Johnson
George Washington was the first American to be honored with a national holiday. The holiday was observed annually on February 22, the anniversary of his birth. Observing Washington’s birthday as a holiday we absorbed the idea that Washington was a great man and that we owe him a debt of gratitude. Unfortunately, February 22 was last observed as a holiday in honor of Washington in 1970. By law, the holiday
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February 12, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Abraham Lincoln stands not only as America’s greatest president but also as its greatest lawyer. At the time of his election to the presidency in 1860 he was the most prominent practicing lawyer in the state of Illinois. As a politician and as president, Lincoln was a profound student of the Constitution and constitutional history. Perhaps most important, Lincoln was America’s indispensable teacher of the moral ground of political freedom
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February 12, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Today is the anniversary of the birth of America’s greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. As a politician and as president, Lincoln was a profound student of the Constitution and constitutional history. Perhaps most important, Lincoln was America’s indispensable teacher of the moral ground of political freedom at the exact moment when the country was on the threshold of abandoning what he called its “ancient faith” that all men are created equal.
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February 11, 2026 — Scott Johnson
You may have read about The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition. It is a two-volume history each volume of which is jointly attributed to the accomplished historians Allen Guelzo and James Hankins. However, except for the jointly written introduction, Professor Hankins is the sole author of Volume I (Subtitle: The Ancient World and Christendom, 2025) and Professor Guelzo, whom I cite in the adjacent post, of Volume
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February 11, 2026 — Scott Johnson
I am warming up for our customary celebration of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln tomorrow. By 1940 Lincoln’s birthday was observed as a holiday in 24 states and the District of Columbia. Now we can read “How Abraham Lincoln lost his birthday holiday.” I’m old-school on the recognition of Lincoln’s greatness. His birthday should be a national holiday. Lincoln not only saved the Union, he also foresaw the difficulty of
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February 10, 2026 — Scott Johnson
The resistance to the enforcement of immigration law by state and local authorities bears just about all the hallmarks of the resistance to desegregation by George Wallace and others who adhered to the doctrine of “massive resistance.” It’s a point John, Bill, and I have each made in our own way. I traced the roots back to the Confederacy in “Inside the battle of the Twin Cities.” Last week Wall
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February 10, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Niall Ferguson is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He holds that when interest payments on the national debt eclipse defense spending, great powers struggle to maintain military strength and global influence. As US debt service surpasses defense outlays for the first time since the 1930s, Ferguson’s Law offers a stark warning about the fiscal foundations of American national power. Hoover has posted the video below expounding
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February 8, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Randy Barnett is the Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law at the Georgetown University Law Center where he directs the Georgetown Center for the Constitution. He is the author, most recently, of A Life for Liberty: The Making of an American Originalist (Encounter Books, 2024). In the current 25th anniversary double issue of the Claremont Review of Books, Professor Barnett reviews Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation, by Zaakir Tamiz.
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February 3, 2026 — Scott Johnson
While our friend and lodestar Victor Davis Hanson is recovering from cancer surgery, Jack Fowler invited me to stand in for Victor on Victor’s In His Own Words podcast. I have posted the video below. As I have occasion to say during the podcast, What a falling off was there! Thanks to Jack for the honor of having me step in to help keep things going until Victor returns, for
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February 2, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Something has happened to the Department of History at Harvard. The former chairman of Harvard’s history department is boasting that he helped transform the faculty from a “white male affinity group” into a more globally diverse operation. In an opinion piece for the Harvard Crimson, the professor, Sidney Chalhoub, characterized the department of the early 1990s as insular and exclusionary and lauded its evolution into a faculty that’s now drawn
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