The source of our moral legitimacy was announced in the Declaration of Independence, addressed out of "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind" to the entire world.
The three books under review are quite different in scope, subject matter, and perspective, but they do agree on one crucial point: empires are not anachronistic political forms but will continue to appear in the political life of mankind. Recognizing this helps us to take a more realistic view of the world. Conflict is here to stay, and imperial power may be indispensable to our survival.
This essay is a preliminary attempt to supply that missing piece. It moves the human family from the periphery to the center of this debate over secularization — and not as a theoretical exercise, but rather because compelling empirical evidence suggests an alternative account of what Nietzsche’s madman really saw in the “tombs” (read, the churches and cathedrals) of Europe.
Democracy is in jeopardy, not because of the usual suspects — corporate influence, activist judges, theocrats, etc. — but in the only form and the only place where it can long survive: civic and historical knowledge in the minds of the young.
Memorial Day is not just for the government and veterans; it is a day for Americans. This Memorial Day, let us all follow Logan's orders: Cherish "tenderly the memory of the heroic dead, who made their hearts a barricade between our country and our foes."
Grant’s strategic success was necessary to defeat the South but it did not impress the Northern public. War weariness, exploited by the so-called "Peace Democrats" or Copperheads, placed Lincoln’s hope for reelection in jeopardy. Not until Farragut’s victory at Mobile Bay, Sherman’s capture of Atlanta, and Phil Sheridan’s success in driving the Confederates from the Shenandoah Valley in the late summer and fall of 1864 did hostility toward the war in the North recede enough to ensure that the president would be returned to office and see the War of Rebellion through to its successful conclusion.
In an exchange with me aired on National Public Radio last week, however, Robert MacNeil explained why he and his team had refused to air "Islam vs. Islamists," describing it as "alarmist" and "extremely one-sided." In other words, a documentary that compellingly portrays what happens to moderate Muslims when they dare to speak up for and participate in democracy, thus defying the Islamists and their champions, is not fit for public airwaves -- even in a series specifically created to bring alternative perspectives to their audience.
College reading lists often have complete nonfiction books, Fitzhugh says. "For students who've not read one, it's tough. The decline is reflected in the remedial courses at the college level." And in the complaints by frustrated professors.
A review of Something Happened: A Political and Cultural Overview of the Seventies by Edward D. Berkowitz and Decade of Nightmares: The End of the Sixties and the Making of Eighties America by Philip Jenkins
