On Sept. 1, 1939, Hitler’s panzers smashed into Poland. Two days later, an anguished Neville Chamberlain declared war, the most awful war in all of history. Was the war inevitable? No. No war is inevitable until it has begun. Was it a necessary war? Hearken to Churchill: “One day, President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about … [Read More]

Recently conducted polls among a number of unidentified historians concerning their views about our best and worst presidents reveal certain long-term trends. Not surprisingly Lincoln was at the top of the lists while our Lancaster County native son, James Buchanan, was at the very bottom. Only a few notches above the man nicknamed “Old Buck” was the clueless W, whom the … [Read More]

With the recent observation of Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday, it might be worth looking at what the last two centuries have wrought. George Washington’s vision of a humble constitutional republic, decentralized and debt free, has been replaced by an imperial superpower, where U.S. influence not only spans the globe, but the globe foots the bill, as presidents and Congress hastily pass … [Read More]

Interacting with people in the sciences over my life one of the major issues I have noticed is an extreme hubris when it comes to their opinions in regards to non-scientific issues. Many individuals in the sciences consider all issues fundamentally scientific.  This engenders a certitude when it comes to public policy; there are no opinions, there are true descriptions of … [Read More]

In the The American Conservative, Dan McCarthy presents as a hero of the antiwar Right former South Dakota senator and onetime Democratic candidate for the presidency, George McGovern (1922- ). From Dan’s account, it seems that McGovern is a “temperamental conservative, an antimilitarist, and a committed decentralist,” and the GOP, by demonizing his person, has rendered itself “repellant” to “most Americans, … [Read More]

In the latest issue of National Review, one finds a laudatory review of a new doorstop biography of Franklin Roosevelt. Among other things, the author of this review credits Roosevelt with reducing the unemployment rate between his first inauguration in 1933 and his reelection in 1936.  On the Conservativenet e-mail list for conservative and libertarian scholars recently, editor Richard Jensen offered … [Read More]

On Sunday night, while listening to “FOX news contributors all” clarify our current financial crisis, I picked up a remark by William Kristol indicating that our stock market and banks should be “more closely regulated.” Kristol went on to explain this regulation accorded “with the system of democratic capitalism created for this country by Alexander Hamilton.” The other news contributors listened … [Read More]

On Sept. 30, 1938, 70 years ago, Neville Chamberlain visited Adolf Hitler’s apartment in Munich, got his signature on a three-sentence declaration and flew home to Heston Aerodrome. “I’ve got it,” he shouted to Lord Halifax. “Here is a paper which bears his name.” At the request of George VI, Chamberlain was driven to Buckingham Palace, where he joined the king … [Read More]

The anniversaries passed with little fanfare in America. No nation really likes to remember its crimes. Stories appeared about the bombings in the German and Japanese press—though both nations feel honor-bound to place them in the context of fascist atrocities which provoked them. But with a few exceptions, the American press has done little to remind us what Allied bombers … [Read More]

Did Hitler’s crimes justify the Allies’ terror-bombing of Germany? Indeed they did, answers Christopher Hitchens in his Newsweek response to my new book, Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War: “The stark evidence of the Final Solution has ever since been enough to dispel most doubts about, say, the wisdom or morality of carpet-bombing German cities.” Atheist, Trotskyite and newborn neocon, Hitchens … [Read More]