April 2013 archive

Sexism in Moffat’s Dr Who.

I am focusing on the Moffat era of Doctor Who because it is convenient, it is the latest and freshest in my mind. This is not the say that there was no sexism in other eras. Watch any classic Who and it will smack you in the face, but then that was hardly uncommon in …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2013/04/28/sexism-in-moffats-dr-who/

A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman

Fourteenth century France seems to encapsulate medieval Europe in all its grandeur and folly. The Middle Ages seem to have been a time when everybody believed in Christianity and nobody practiced it. Likewise, they seem to have been a time when men were most warlike yet waged war with the greatest incompetence. After reading this …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2013/04/21/a-distant-mirror-by-barbara-tuchman/

The House of Medici by Christopher Hibbert

Could the Italian Renaissance have flourished without the Medici to finance it? This book supports Will Durant’s argument that art may be the flower of civilization, but money is the root. Yet apart from a few shining stars in the Medici family, the story is mostly one of decline that illustrates how utterly useless Europe’s …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2013/04/14/the-house-of-medici-by-christopher-hibbert/

A Republic, Not an Empire by Patrick Buchanan

Whatever the merits of Buchanan’s arguments may be, and I believe they are considerable, this book is a refreshing trip through American history. His arguments for non-interventionism seem particularly wise and prescient in light of the fact that this book was written before the Iraq War. And he has caused me to think of World …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2013/04/13/a-republic-not-an-empire-by-patrick-buchanan/