The Return of Douglas MacArthur

by | Aug 8, 2016

In war, there is no substitute for victory.” “The lands touching the Pacific will determine the course of history for the next thousand years.” The United States, except for the 1991 Persian Gulf War, has not been victorious in war since World War II. Meanwhile,...

The Habsburgs, a Reconsideration

by | Aug 1, 2016

The Habsburg Empire: A New History by Pieter M. Judson. Belknap Press, 2016. Hardcover, 592 pages, $35. The Habsburg Monarchy has long been seen as an outdated empire doomed to fail. To the Central European societies it sheltered before 1914, it may have had a cosy...

The Limits (and Misuse) of Air Power

by | Aug 1, 2016

The Bombers and the Bombed: Allied Air War Over Europe, 1940–1945. By Richard Overy. New York: Viking, 2013. Paperback, 592 pages, $18.In 1938, as war clouds gathered, America’s commander in chief, President Franklin Roosevelt met in November with an ad hoc...

A Partial Introduction to Black Conservatism

by | Jul 10, 2016

Black Conservatism: Essays in Intellectual and Political History edited by Peter Eisenstadt. Routledge, 2015. Paperback, 328 pages, $55. Black Conservatism, a collection edited by Peter Eisenstadt, is an introduction to the lives of lesser-known figures who can be...

Books in Little: The Myth of Islamic Spain

by | Jun 27, 2016

The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise: Muslims, Christians, and Jews under Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain by Darío Fernández-Morera. ISI Books, 2016. Hardcover, 358 pages, $30.   This is a brave book, and one must assume that its author is tenured, for the book...