On Jacob Bronowski
I’m happy to see this review online now. Bronowski was one of my heroes when young, and Sandefur has written a first-rate biography.
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History
“Manifest Destiny” panel today at FreedomFest
I am in Las Vegas today and looking forward to participating in this three-way panel discussion and debate: It was the notion of “Manifest Destiny” that led to the very existence of the Wild West in America’s history. Inherent was the idea that expansion into the American west by settlers was not only inevitable but
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The Stain of Slavery [Open College]
A new episode of my podcast series, produced by Possibly Correct out of Toronto. Audio: iTunes Stitcher YouTube Topics and times: The decline of slavery as a moral achievement // History: Slavery practiced everywhere before modernity // The internal African slave society and trades // The Atlantic trade and where the slaves went // Early
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On honesty, Stalin’s killings, and Western intellectuals (anecdote)
Hollywood screenwriter Anna Louise Strong was basically a Communist propagandist. When in 1956 Khrushchev “revealed” Stalin’s crimes, Strong suffered a mental breakdown over the “betrayal.” Later she confessed: “We knew all these things for twenty-five years, and I kept silent for the cause of socialism. What am I supposed to say?” (Which I connect to
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Bella d’ Abrera on Aussie re-education camps (a.k.a. universities)
Dr. Bella d’Abrera will be the MC for two of my Adventures in Postmodernism Tour events. Here is a recent piece she published on the state of history (mis-)education in Australia: Three Years in an Aussie Re-education Camp. Dr. d’Abrera attended Cambridge University and writes about postmodernism in Australian media and appears on major news
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A difference with Jordan Peterson on Enlightenment foundations
During a fun (and long) question-and-answer session after a lecture at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania — some of us were still going strong after three hours — I was asked my view on the origins of the Enlightenment. The first questioner noted that Jordan Peterson had spoken at Lafayette the year before and had argued
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Conservatives: Get Over the Dark Ages [Open College series]
Audio links: iTunes Stitcher YouTube Topics: The “Dark” Ages or The “Brilliant” Ages? // Chronology // Was there a Dark Age? // Why did the activity pick up after the year 1000? // Roger Bacon and Thomas Aquinas // Why is the debate significant today? // The verdict on Christianity // The verdict on modernity and the Enlightenment // Why
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Remembering the Nazi-Soviet invasions of Poland
September 1, 1939 is the date the German Nazis invaded Poland, initiating World War Two. Less well remembered is the shortly thereafter Soviet Russian invasion of Poland. A month earlier, the Nazis and Soviets had agreed not to attack each other and to divide Poland (and other parts of eastern Europe) between them. The Soviets
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