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Would we necessarily say that government, civic life, the media, or high finance work better now than in the mid-20th century? We can scorn the smug WASP blue bloods from Groton and Choate—and certainly their era’s retrograde views of race and gender—but their leadership helped produce the Progressive movement, the New Deal, victory in World War II... See more

David Brooks • How the Ivy League Broke America

For the modern world, questions about the nature of humanity would be viewed on par with the struggle among the Lilliputians about the correct way to cut open an egg. Hobbes, the first truly modern philosopher, boasted of how he deserted and ran away from fighting in a religious war; a cowardly life had become preferable to a heroic but meaningless... See more

Peter Thiel • The Straussian Moment

The lesson to learn from the American experience in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq is to be skeptical of concepts that divorce war or competitions short of war from their enduring political nature, particularly concepts that promise fast, cheap victory through technology.

H. R. McMaster • Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World

The problem is the relationship of the federal government to itself.

George Friedman • The Storm Before the Calm: America's Discord, the Coming Crisis of the 2020s, and the Triumph Beyond

War

Margaret MacMillan

amazon.com

Together with Tet, the report left in near ruins both his war and his peace paths to advance freedom.

Taylor Branch • At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68

Eisenhower announced that he intended to direct 40 percent of the upcoming defense budget to the Air Force. The Army and Navy would be reduced accordingly. The object was to prevent war, not to fight one. With the war in Korea approaching an end, there was no reason to maintain an Army of twenty divisions. The implication was clear. Under Ike there