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Commentary
Larry McMurtry died on March 25th at the age of 84. An extraordinary writer, he was arguably the best American novelist of the 20th century. He took exquisite care with observation, word choice, and character development. His books about the American West will influence us for years to come. Of
Commentary
"Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." 1984, George Orwell (1949)
Commentary
There always is this fallacious belief: "It would not be the same here. Here such things are impossible." Alas, all the evil of the twentieth century is possible everywhere on earth. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Commentary
A Black Swan is an event, positive or negative, that is deemed improbable yet causes massive consequences. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan, 2007
Commentary
In preparation for a talk on the life and import of Frederick Douglass, I was encouraged by my daughter, Katie, to read Uncle Tom's Cabin. Like many of us, I knew about the importance of Harriet Beecher Stowe's great novel in the cause of abolition of
Culture
The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West By David McCullough Simon & Schuster May 2019 352 pages David McCullough has written another superb history, The Pioneers. Admittedly, it is not in the same class as his two magisterial biographies, Truman and John Adams,
Commentary
If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. (American Proverb)
Commentary
Today I finished Bleak House by Charles Dickens. Eight hundred eighty pages serialized in the usual nineteen parts between March 1852 and September 1853. It was not an easy read but it was worthwhile. Bleak House was written after Oliver Twist and David Copperfield but before A Tale of Two