I read with interest Ta-Nehisi Coates’ recent historical essay for The Atlantic, “What This Cruel War Was Over.” The article is worth reading. It consists mostly of quotations pulled from Southerner declarations, debates, and editorials from the Civil War and late antebellum eras, all on the theme of slavery and the desperate need to preserve […]
“The King’s library at Buckingham House” from The History of Royal Residences, by William Henry Pines (1819), plate No. 48 Image Source: Wikimedia When the moment of decision arrives the time for study and reflection has ended. Decisions made under pressure often rely on heuristics, assumptions, and interpretive frames formed long before crisis arrives. Some of […]
“Shanghai Celebrates the New Republic,” from Dongfang Magazine, vol 8, no. 12 (1911) Image Source: Wikimedia Political scientist Jay Ulfelder has an interesting piece up at Dart Throwing Chimp that questions the importance of ‘legitimacy,’ a concept social scientists have long used to explain the rise and fall of governments and political regimes. This is […]
Image Credit: Wikimedia It is rare for me to comment at length on contemporary American pop-culture here at the Stage, where I usually reserve myself to discussions of cultural trends found deep in the past or far from American shores. But occasionally I will read a piece exciting or infuriating enough to drag me out […]
The Fallen of World War II from Neil Halloran on Vimeo (27 May 2015). This video is a bit less than 20 minutes long. It has been making the rounds on Facebook and other social network sites, so it is possible you have seen it already. If you have not, you should. It is incredible. […]
Japanese geisha playing weiqi (go) c. 1800. Image Source: Wikimedia This post should be considered an extended footnote of my series on what has been written in English about the history of Chinese strategic thought. [1] As I sifted through the materials I needed for that review, I came across one trope about Chinese culture […]
