Category: Defense of the West

The Lessons of the Versailles Treaty

The Treaty of Versailles was signed in Versailles, France, on June 28, 1919. Neither the winners nor the losers of World War I were happy with the formal conclusion to the bloodbath. The traditional criticism of the treaty is that the victorious French and British democracies did not listen to the pleas of leniency from … Continued

The War Over America’s Past Is Really About Its Future

The summer season has ripped off the thin scab that covered an American wound, revealing a festering disagreement about the nature and origins of the United States. The San Francisco Board of Education recently voted to paint over, and thus destroy, a 1,600-square-foot mural of George Washington’s life in San Francisco’s George Washington High School. … Continued

Why Are the Western Middle Classes So Angry?

What is going on with the unending Brexit drama, the aftershocks of Donald Trump’s election and the “yellow vests” protests in France? What drives the growing estrangement of southern and eastern Europe from the European Union establishment? What fuels the anti-EU themes of recent European elections and the stunning recent Australian re-election of conservatives? Put … Continued

Sohrab Ahmari and Our Existential Struggle

Perhaps the most amusing intramural intellectual squall on the Right these past few days has centered on “Against David French-ism,” Sohrab Ahmari’s recent polemical reflection on liberalism in First Things. I did not think that Sohrab had all that much to say directly about the man who provided him with the title of his essay, … Continued

The Surprising Internationalism of the Nationalists

Globalism is the ideology of the ruling class. It is the stuff of the World Economic Forum, Paris Climate Treaty, multinational banks pushing transsexuals, payment processors excluding conservative activists, social media giants deciding what is permissible speech, the movement of Third World peoples to the First World, the abolition of tariffs that protect local industries … Continued

Control the Narrative, Save the West

Although the mechanism is mysterious, it often seems as though a centralized control center is issuing out for dissemination the turns of phrase and interpretations of events to be spread by celebrities, prestige journalists, and other influencers. These narratives end up influencing and controlling the way we think about things. Political correctness has been a … Continued

Who Will Convert Us? The Life of James V. Schall, S.J.

At the passing of a priest, age 91, who was also a profound scholar and inspiring teacher, one expects to see praise of his dozens of books, hundreds of writings, 60 years’ worth of lectures, and generations of students. In the case of Fr. James V. Schall, S.J., the longtime Georgetown University political theorist who … Continued

Waging War Against the Dead

[fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_ rule_style=”default” rule_size=”” rule_ ] [fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_ rule_style=”default” rule_size=”” rule_ ] The 21st century is in danger of becoming an era of statue smashing and historical erasure. Not since the iconoclasts of the Byzantine Empire or the epidemic of statue destruction during the French Revolution has the world seen anything … Continued

Decline and Fall: Classics Edition

For the study of classics, it is (if we may adapt Dickens) the best of times and the worst of times. It is the best of times because there are multiple popular initiatives, mostly outside the academy, introducing people young and old to the riches of Greek and Latin. There are even a few bright … Continued

Rashida Tlaib’s Progressive Window Dressing

U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), following the lead of the insufferable Keith Ellison, opted to be inducted with a copy of the Koran for her congressional swearing-in ceremony. “My swearing in on the (Koran) is about me showing that the American people are made up of diverse backgrounds and we all have love of justice … Continued