A Serbian Gypsy Family at Ellis Island. “Gitanos Augustus” by Augustus Sherman (1917), displayed at Statue of Liberty National Park. Image Credit: Wikimedia. What history should an educated American be expected to know?The most recent issue of Democracy Journal includes a long essay by Eric Liu on “cultural literacy,” a term coined by E.D. Hersh […]
In the December issue of International Studies Quarterly Paul Avey and Michael Desch published one of the more interesting articles to come from an academic international relations journal in a long while. For the last few years there has been a rather voracious debate within social science generally and political science specifically about whether or […]
A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit. TOP BILLING “‘The standard of living in ancient societies: a comparison between the Han Empire, the Roman Empire, and Babylonia“ Bas van Leeuwen, Reinhard Pirgruber, and Jieli van Leeuwen-Li. Working Papers 50, Utrecht University, Centre for Global Economic History. The global and long-term development of […]
Whilst Reading: A Portrait of Sofia Kramskoya, the Painter’s Wife (Ivan Kramskoi, 1866)Image Source. Earlier this year I asked if the ‘great books’ have a place in the 21st century. Jospeh Sobran says that they do: “Dogged readers of my columns will observe that I habitually quote a handful of classic writings, chiefly the Shakespeare […]
Image Source “When one seeks imperial power, there is no mean between the heights and the abyss.” –Tacitus, The Histories, Book 2.74 The American dream is dead. Matthew O’Brien thinks he knows why: “RIP, American Dream? Why It’s So Hard For the Poor to Get Ahead Today“Matthew O’Brien. The Atlantic. 18 June 2013. It is […]
A selection of the 60 volume Great Books of the Western World.Image source. A “proper education” changes with its times. In the days of America’s founding a true education was a classical education. An educated man was not simply expected to be familiar with the great works of Greek and Roman civilization; the study of […]
What impact does culture have on cognition? Psychologist Richard Nisbett has conducted dozens of studies to find out the answer to this question. Presented in The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently, the results of his study are fascinating – and their implications far reaching. “Perception: How Germans and Chinese See Each Other” from […]
Today I ran across Louis Menard’s review of Philip Tetlock’s book Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Do We Now? The bulk of Dr. Tetlock’s book concerns a 18 year experiment designed to test the forecasting skills of pundits and analysts. Having gathered some 284 experts in international politics, he asked them to […]
Author’s Note: A few days ago I finished reading Europe in Crisis, 1598-1648, by Geoffrey Parker. Parker is a renowned scholar of 17th century Europe, and for those unfamiliar with the period’s history I can think of no better introduction than this volume. This reading was the impetus for the following post. You can summarize […]
…Neal McCluskley of the CATO Institute. If China Jumped Off a Bridge, Would We Do It To?Neal McCluskley. CATO@Liberty. 2 November 2009. Of late CATO@Liberty has produced some content sure to be of interest to readers of the Stage. While ideologues to the core, the CATO folks have a special talent for brevity, humor, and […]
