In 1801 President Thomas Jefferson responded to a group of Connecticut merchants who objected to his appointment of a new collector of customs duties — the equivalent of tariffs. The prior holder of that office — Elizur Goodrich — had…
Two hundred and eighty-nine years ago, on Oct. 30, 1735, one of the most important yet least appreciated Founding Fathers was born in a place we now know as Quincy, Massachusetts. The birthday of John Adams provides an opportunity to…
VENICE, Italy — When Gasparo Contarini surveyed the political chaos of Italy’s city-states in the 1500s, he grew somber: “It is evident that almost every city in Italy, whether it is governed by a popular order or even by one…
Democrats and their media allies, neoconservatives, and establishment Republicans deride the notion of an “America First” foreign policy. They distort history to trace the roots of today’s “America First” approach to foreign policy to those groups in the United States…
Jefferson wrote of “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” in his ringing declaration which still speaks to our hearts. But what these Laws of Nature are is a matter of considerable debate. Jefferson professed the watchmaker God of the…
The world is starved for virtuous, courageous leaders and problem solvers. For those perplexed by the current state of politics, Groucho Marx had the answer. Groucho said, “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it…
A statesman in modern democracies is a politician of one sort or another and is accountable in the end to the body politic he serves. He cannot ignore the will of the people. In this, he is the same as…
In his philosophical dialogue Kuzari, the poet Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi portrayed an imagined series of talks between a Khazar king and religious representatives of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as with a philosopher who did not identify with any…
I had taken a long turn away from reading American history when I first became acquainted with David McCullough. From my senior year in college onwards, I have spent most of my reading time immersed in the immense literature of…
