History, for the progressive, is a bottomless source of self-regard. He reads of past men and past deeds, and thinks, “If only they were more like us!”
May 232019
Remembering
The obscurest epoch is today.
—Stevenson
Apr 162019
Not so very long ago, no adult in history had ever spoken of himself as the parent of an animal.
Apr 102019
Ours is the Great Age of Hoaxes, its small compensation for being the Great Age of Fakes.
Mar 262019
Flash mobs appeared from nowhere, a few years ago, and vanished as suddenly as they came.
Mar 202019
There are no murders of great civilizations — only suicides.
Jan 172019
The savage’s hatred of the civilized man does little harm, unless abetted by the civilized man’s hatred of himself.
Dec 172018
The conservative stands athwart history with a radar gun, handing out the occasional speeding ticket to make quota.
Dec 072018
Written history is mostly war, and the surest way to be remembered is to start one.
Dec 032018
Whiggism implies boundless optimism about the future, and, less often noted, boundless contempt for the past.
Oct 312018
We say of posthumously venerated figures that they waited generations or centuries to receive their due. It does not occur to us that they may have deserved their earlier neglect, and that it is we who have been taken in.