Military History, Book Reviews, and Other Things

Category Political History

Book Review – Iron Kingom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 by Christopher Clark

This massive tome lays claim to being a complete history of Prussia, and if he doesn’t achieve it, he doesn’t miss it by much. It is fairly large at over 700 pages but Dr. Clark has a pleasant writing style… Continue Reading →

The Decline and Fall of the United States?

There has been much talk and discussion both in editorials and on various internet forums about the pending decline of the supposed US “empire” or the USA itself. I was thinking about this on the way back from dropping my… Continue Reading →

Endorsing Herman Cain

This piece by Charles Kradlec is one of the most ringing well written endorsements of Herman Cain I have seen.   It is well worth reading your self.   The conclusion of the piece says it all: When we vote… Continue Reading →

Book Review: The Age of Total War: 1860-1945 by Jeremy Black

The notion that a book is “thought-provoking” is often thrown out there for works of non-fiction, and of those that are described as such that I have read most very seldom are.   This book is different, Dr. Black has… Continue Reading →

Gotta Love the Onion

This was one of the headline stories on the Onion today: Historians Politely Remind Nation To Check What’s Happened In Past Before Making Any Big Decisions. Hilarious, Just Hilarious

Knowledge of history and democracy

Text of Declaration of Independence Saw an interesting article today: Back to School, Back to U.S. History Basics from George Nethercutt is probably one of the best arguments I have read for emphasizing historical literacy in schools that I have… Continue Reading →

Book Review: The Penguin History of Europe by J.M. Roberts

I cannot remember why I bought The Penguin History of Europe by J.M. Roberts several years ago, no doubt it was as a resource for an undergrad paper I wrote although I cannot find it used as a cite in… Continue Reading →

Rick Perry on Social Security

Being a Texas resident I like Rick Perry so I will probably be posting a lot about him in the run up to next year’s election.   I predict that Perry will win the Republican nomination and trounce Obama.  … Continue Reading →

How did the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan impact the Cold War?

As the period of détente during the 1970’s continued, the rapprochement between the Soviet Union and the United States seemed to intensify and promised to lessen tensions between the rival countries.   The invasion of Afghanistan and the imposition of… Continue Reading →

China: A Potential or Current Threat?

Jed Babbitt has an excellent piece on RCP today that talks about the potential threat China represents to the US and by implication, the rest of the Western world.China’s Economic Sword.   People have been pointing to the potential threat… Continue Reading →

BOOK REVIEW: Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson

I have read several of Niall Ferguson’s books and while I may not always agree with him hi writing style and analysis are always interesting and thought provoking.   Civilization: The West and the Rest is no different.   I… Continue Reading →

The Fall of Qaddafi and the future of the “Arab Spring”

I wrote about the war/action/conflict/kinetic what have you in Libya when it kicked off in March, April, and again in June. With the rebels now storming Tripoli itself and being on the verge of success under the cover of NATO,… Continue Reading →

The Fronts of World War I in 1917 & 1918

The tactical and strategic situation at the beginning of 1917 was little changed from that at the beginning of 1916.   All that the offensives on the Western Front had managed to accomplish the previous year were minor changes in… Continue Reading →

Sun-Tzu & Clausewitz: A Comparison

Both Sun-Tzu and Clausewitz have something to offer for the serious student of warfare.   The biggest distinction between the two seems to be their different approaches to the art of war.   Sun-Tzu advocates a more subtle and indirect… Continue Reading →

Schoolhouse Rock and Civic Knowledge

Ace of Spades put up an excellent post a few weeks ago about the lack of Civics knowledge in this country.http://ace.mu.nu/archives/318322.php#318322 The best part of the post are the links to the old Schoolhouse Rock videos that just about everyone… Continue Reading →

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