Washington Many Americans, after they have been in Washington, D.C., for a few years, become less fervent about their beliefs. Donald Trump has become more fervent about the things he believes. After this past weekend and Donald’s solemnly expressed indignation…
A statue of Civil War hero and abolitionist Col. Hans Christian Heg in Madison, Wisconsin, was the latest to fall victim to the wave of vandalism and destruction across the country driven by protests over the death of George Floyd….
The shocking killing of George Floyd has triggered a social tsunami, sweeping all before it. Among the most dramatic impacts have been on historical remembrances, so many of which reflect America’s tragic experience with slavery, Jim Crow, and racism. There…
The famous memorial stands astride the banks of the Potomac River, facing the Washington Mall. The National Park Service, as here, says this of the mammoth marble statue of a seated Abraham Lincoln that dominates the memorial’s interior: “In this…
F. H. Buckley’s newest work, American Secession: The Looming Threat of National Breakup, is probably one of the most important nonfiction books of 2020. Written during the last year when Americans were more divided at any time in their national…
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger said the Corps will remove “Confederate paraphernalia” from its facilities. Exactly what is covered remains unclear, but the directive marks a dramatic change in the military’s relationship with the nation’s most costly and personal…
A Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarist who lives at the edge of Appalachia ends his every email with a quote from William Pitt the Younger, the British prime minister who successfully defied Napoleon’s planned invasion: Necessity is the…
Nearly 20 years ago, in the wake of the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, the masterful Wendell Berry wrote an impassioned essay. The “only result,” he wrote, of the wrenching confrontation, sponsored by the majority of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee, was…
As Benjamin Franklin was leaving the Constitutional Convention, he was asked, “What have you given us?” He answered: “A Republic, if you can keep it.” That probably happened, but even if it didn’t, the exchange captures two fundamental truths about…
