Category: Politics

Just Send Me Word by Orlando Figes

From the Preface to Just Send Me Word: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Gulag, by Orlando Figes: Three old trunks had just been delivered. They were sitting in a doorway, blocking people’s way into the busy room where members of the public and historical researchers were received in the Moscow offices …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/10/03/just-send-me-word-by-orlando-figes/

The Chronicles of the Black Company by Glenn Cook

“The Chronicles of the Black Company ” is a dark epic fantasy by Glenn Cook. It depicts the travels of the Black Company a band of ruthless mercenaries as they switch from side to side. It is told in the voice of the Company’s surgeon and chronicler who’s fantasies about the ruling lady take him …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/12/the-chronicles-of-the-black-company-by-glenn-cook/

Politics by Aristotle

Aristotle’s politics strike me as rather conservative. He believes some democracy is good, but not too much. The lower classes should be kept firmly in their place, and the upper classes should not have their property rights disturbed. He emphatically does not believe that all men are equal. He believes that education should be a …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/07/12/politics-by-aristotle/

For Reasons of State by Noam Chomsky

The first four chapters of this book deal with the perceived immorality and injustice of the Vietnam War. By now I am so used to Chomsky’s blame-America-first arguments that I tend to be dismissive of them, but his indictments in this book do make me stop and think. The rest of this book consists of …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/05/12/for-reasons-of-state-by-noam-chomsky/

The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle

I am by now used to Aristotle’s inimitable dullness, but this is actually one of his more readable and engaging works. What constitutes the good life? Aristotle believes that a happy life is necessarily a virtuous life, something I myself have grave doubts about. Unlike most Americans, he believes virtue is best exercised in the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/05/07/the-nicomachean-ethics-by-aristotle/

Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles by Richard Dowden

EXCELLENT book, confirms my opinion that the best writers of history are non-historians. African history is mostly a depressing subject, but this book was so well written that I could not put it down. There is a good dose of white liberal guilt sprinkled throughout the narrative, as well as a typical tendency to blame …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/01/03/africa-altered-states-ordinary-miracles-by-richard-dowden/

Dickens, Dali, and Others by George Orwell

Aside from a couple of masterpieces that everyone is familiar with, most of Orwell’s fiction is not very good. His essays, however, are nothing short of brilliant. Most of these were written shortly before, during, or shortly after World War II, and even though the subjects are mostly literary his arguments are quite political, in …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2013/08/30/dickens-dali-and-others-by-george-orwell/

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/

Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?

Pat Buchanan makes a lot of sense, and on many points I am in agreement with him. But on one point I disagree with him profoundly. Christianity is not the sole property of white people of European descent; the Kingdom of God is open to people of all nations. Like Buchanan, I am concerned that …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2013/03/22/suicide-of-a-superpower-will-america-survive-to-2025/

The March of Folly by Barbara Tuchman

Tuchman’s thesis is that governments frequently, through sheer obstinacy and stupidity, do things that are injurious to their own interests. She cites four primary historical examples: the Trojans in the Trojan War, the papacy preceding the Reformation, the British government during the American Revolution, and the government of the United States during the Vietnam War. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/06/18/the-march-of-folly-by-barbara-tuchman/