Home » Posts tagged 'history' (Page 7)
Tag Archives: history
Debt is a Determining Factor in History
Debt is a Determining Factor in History Photo by airpix | CC BY 2.0 Sovereign debt has been a crucial factor in a series of major historical events. From the early 19th century, in Latin American countries such as Colombia, Mexico and Argentina, struggling for independence,as well as Greece when seeking funds for its war of independence, these nascent […]
You’re Just Not Prepared For What’s Coming
You’re Just Not Prepared For What’s Coming Not even close I hate to break it to you, but chances are you’re just not prepared for what’s coming. Not even close. Don’t take it personally. I’m simply playing the odds. After spending more than a decade warning people all over the world about the futility of […]
The Government Has Been Meddling in Food and Nutrition for a Long Time
The Government Has Been Meddling in Food and Nutrition for a Long Time For over a century, the federal government has had its hand in shaping what we eat in a multitude of ways, usually to bad effect. Government intrusion is often obvious. We know when government taxes our income, stops us from using our […]
The return of the peasant: or, the history of the world in 10½ blog posts. 10. The current impasse
The return of the peasant: or, the history of the world in 10½ blog posts. 10. The current impasse I’ve just returned from a short but fascinating meeting in Nicaragua on small-scale farming, which I plan to write about soon. But first I want to finish my history of the world. Apologies if the latter […]
The Deep History of Taxation May Surprise You
The Deep History of Taxation May Surprise You For the majority of history, the idea of sustained taxation in peacetime was anathema. So what happened? Two things in life are certain: death and taxes. So goes the saying. And yet despite that, the idea of the necessity of taxation is largely undisputed, “consent” to its […]
The return of the peasant: or, the history of the world in 10½ blog posts – 8. Of reconstituted peasantries and alternate modernities
The return of the peasant: or, the history of the world in 10½ blog posts – 8. Of reconstituted peasantries and alternate modernities Continuing with my ‘History of the world’. As ever, the fully referenced version of this essay is available here. I’m going to come back to the issue of peasantries as the ‘universal […]
Look at the big picture, avoid groupthink, remember history
Look at the big picture, avoid groupthink, remember history A friend of mine recently outlined as follows his method for thinking about important issues: Look at the big picture, avoid groupthink, and remember history. First, the big picture. People too often think only about the narrow field in which they work or the community or […]
We Live in Revolutionary Times
We Live in Revolutionary Times Pluto takes 248 years to orbit the sun. The most recent, and perhaps most important, network challenge to hierarchy comes with the advent of virtual currencies and payment systems like Bitcoin. Since ancient times, states have reaped considerable benefits from monopolizing or at least regulating the money created within their […]
Neoliberalism Was Never about Free Markets
Neoliberalism Was Never about Free Markets From the beginning, it was about watering down classical liberalism. One of the most accusatory and negative words currently in use in various politically “progressive” circles is that of “neoliberalism.” To be called a “neoliberal” is to stand condemned of being against “the poor,” an apologist for the “the […]
America: The Dictatress of the World
America: The Dictatress of the World On July 21, 1821, John Quincy Adams, who would go on to become the sixth president of the United States, warned that if America were ever to abandon its founding principle of non-interventionism in foreign affairs, she might well become the dictatress of the world. Adams issued his warning […]
The Killing of History
The Killing of History One of the most hyped “events” of American television,The Vietnam War, has started on the PBS network. The directors are Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Acclaimed for his documentaries on the Civil War, the Great Depression and the history of jazz, Burns says of his Vietnam films, “They will inspire our […]
The Worst Mistake in U.S. History
THE WORST MISTAKE IN U.S. HISTORY The worst mistake in U.S. history was the conversion after World War II of the U.S. government from a constitutional, limited-government republic to a national-security state. Nothing has done more to warp and distort the conscience, principles, and values of the American people, including those who serve in the […]
Condemned to Repeat It History as Rerun
Condemned to Repeat It History as Rerun European essayist George Santayana famously wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This is repeated, as it just has been, ad nauseum as various persons (like yours truly) attempt to claim the mantle of wisdom. But the past is being deliberately repeated by […]
The Weaponization of History and Journalism
THE WEAPONIZATION OF HISTORY AND JOURNALISM we don’t need no stinkin’ facts In the United States, facts, an important element of truth, are not important. They are not important in the media, politics, universities, historical explanations, or the courtroom. Non-factual explanations of the collapse of three World Trade Center buildings are served up as the […]
Why Study History?
Why Study History? As liberal Democrats for the most part, United States historians have no doubt been having a field day with Donald Trump’s recently reported clueless comments on United States history. The president’s moronic take on the nation’s past was front-page news last Tuesday in liberals’ and academics’ favorite newspaper, The New York Times. […]
