Category Archives: History

Ominous Parallels: What Antebellum America Can Teach Us About Our Modern Political Regime

Tags:Domestic Politics, History, Monied Interests, Oligarchy

Many people point to the hyper-partisanship of national Democratic and Republican parties as the greatest challenge facing 21st century America. When seen through the lens of another vapidly partisan political system – that of Jacksonian America – we see that the real danger is not noisy partisanship, but the iniquity it hides: for them it was slavery; for us, plutarchy.   Living amidst the raucous partisanship of contemporary times it […]

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Playing Around With Google Ngram

Tags:Culture, History, Image of the Day, Media

Google Labs has released a cool new tool: Google Ngram Viewer. CNET News explains how it works: Google’s Ngram Viewer: A time machine for wordplayLancey Whitney. CNET News. 17 December 2010. Courtesy of the folks at Google Labs, Ngram Viewer can work its analysis as a result of Google’s sometimes contentious digitization of vast quantities […]

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Historical Smack-down

Tags:Books and Literature, Culture, Dogs of War, History, Military Affairs

Last month Zenpundit brought to my attention an interesting debate between military historian  Lt. Col. Robert Bateman and classicist Victor Davis Hanson. The topic up for debate was Carnage and Culture, the magnum opus of Mr. Hanson’s career. For those unfamiliar with the work, the thesis of Carnage and Culture is stated eloquently on its […]

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Notes From All Over 2/11/2010

Tags:Bharat, Complex Systems, Demographics, Futuristics, History, Notes From All Over, Political Theory, Religion

A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit – abridged addition this time around. DEMOGRAPHICS The Wheel of History Turns to The Gods Razib Khan. Gene Expression. 10 October 2010. An extremely important survey of global demographic trends over the next forty years.The post focuses on the difference between the birth rates of […]

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Notes From All Over (6/10/2010)

Tags:Bactria, Bharat, Demographics, Energy, History, Notes From All Over, Oligarchy, Strategy, The Middle Kingdom

A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit. THE REPUBLIC Taxes and Presidential Math Veronique de Rugy. The American. 5 October 2010. Mr. de Rugy presents the best graphic of the month: Tip of the Hat to John Kranz of ThreeSources. Social Cohesion and the Bohemian Grove: the Power Elite at Summer Camp […]

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The Chinese Strategic Tradition: A Syllabus

Tags:History, Political Theory, The Middle Kingdom

In the course of my internet wanderings I came across two very interesting syllabuses. The first was for a Harvard research seminar titled  “Chinese Strategic Thought.” The second was for a MIT class named “Chinese Foreign Policy: International Relations and Strategy.” In essence, both classes serve as introduction to the Chinese strategic tradition. As I […]

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Manifest Destiny – A Case Study in National Purpose?

Tags:Culture, History, Narrative, Strategy

WARNING – ANOTHER SUPER LONG POST  (Sorry I keep throwing these things on you guys).  An interesting discussion has been enfolding over at Zenpundit’s place. The topic of the day is grand strategy and its relation to moral and national purpose. My previous foray into the topic, “Dreaming Grand Strategy”, drew the attention of Mark […]

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Notes on the Dynamics of Human Civilization: The Growth Revolution, Part I

Tags:Complex Systems, Demographics, Energy, History, On Humanity, Wealth

The following series is an attempt to make some sense of that most peculiar of subjects: human civilization. My interest lies in the dynamics of civilized societies: their material needs and limitations, the recurring patterns of geography, social organization, and cultural complexity upon which they are built, and the type of interactions that define their […]

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