In a new, and far better translation by Michael Hofmann, Ernst Jünger’s account of his three years of service on the Western Front in World War I represents one of the great pieces of literature from that conflict.
The cult of celebrity around T.E. Lawrence was created by the American journalist Lowell Thomas immediately after World War I and expanded with the 1962 release of David Lean’s magnificent film Lawrence of Arabia starring Peter O’Toole. Seven Pillars of Wisdom is one of the greatest books to come out of World War I.
Victor Davis Hanson recently wrote about the campus “cry-bully” phenomenon: i.e., of students and faculty who inhabit the strange intersection of totally hapless victims and nearly-omnipotent censors.
Donald Trump’s seemingly unstoppable march to the nomination has intensified “establishment” Republican criticism of The Donald, especially after his big win in the Super Tuesday primaries and his trademark insults and evasions during Thursday’s debate.
There is a Japanese proverb that goes, “Faith makes even the head of a sardine the object of worship.” That’s the sort of devotion that seems to be driving many Americans to buy overpriced organic products such as food, bed linens, pillows and clothes, sales of which increased 83% between 2007 and 2012.
Two tales of Nancy Reagan: The first took place during Ronald Reagan’s 1966 campaign for governor of California. Dana Rohrabacher, now a member of Congress but then just a college kid, slept one night in the backyard of Reagan’s house in Pacific Palisades. At 7 the next morning, the back door swung open and Nancy Reagan appeared.
During the most recent Detroit debate, even a reformed “inclusive” and “presidential” Donald Trump still was crass and vulgar. (Has a candidate ever crudely referred to the size of his phallus, and in our sick world is that a Freudian admission of doubt, or a macho reassurance in LBJ fashion?)
Even by the standards of an epically polarized Washington, the political talk about President Obama’s effort to close the Guantá namo Bay prison is starkly divorced from facts. On both sides of the debate, many claims collapse under scrutiny.
