Tag: United States

The Gatekeepers by Chris Whipple

I read The Gatekeepers, a book about White House chiefs of staff, like the grad student and extremely minor Washington insider that I used to be: acknowledgments first, then scan the bibliography, then a look at the notes, then the main text. In this case, I also read the last chapter, which is about the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/04/17/the-gatekeepers-by-chris-whipple/

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/

1776 by David McCullough

This is really good stuff. Personal accounts and testimonies from those who were there. Yet it seems like a miracle that America was able to win its revolution. The campaign was botched and bungled from the beginning, and Washington was hardly a military leader of the first order. Providence certainly played a role in the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2011/05/14/1776-by-david-mccullough/

Premature Evaluation: Sundown Towns

An important story, very badly told. Before and, more crucially, immediately after the American Civil War, African-Americans were widely dispersed throughout the country. By the 1940s, however, blacks living outside the South were concentrated in particular areas of the largest cities. In Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism James Loewen asks how that …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2008/12/15/premature-evaluation-sundown-towns/

Franklin Delano Roosevelt by Conrad Black

The author of this book has also written a biography of comparable length of Richard Nixon. I must say that compared to Roosevelt, Nixon comes across as positively principled and idealistic. Black portrays FDR as a bold and gifted but somewhat underhanded and unscrupulous leader. His portraits of all of the major figures of this …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2008/02/12/franklin-delano-roosevelt-by-conrad-black/