Sublime

As Pershing’s chief of operations for the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) during World War I, Fox Conner directed the development and successful deployment of American combat forces in France. Pershing considered Conner to have been “a brilliant soldier” and “one of the finest characters our Army has ever produced.” Pershing paid tribute to Con

As any reader of the James Bond books will know, Ian Fleming loved gadgetry and technical know-how. In the mid 1930s, having done well on a Stock Exchange deal, he had given a Marxist book dealer called Percy Muir an initial payment of £250 to search out and acquire a most unusual collection of books. He wanted anything that marked milestones of pr

Lincoln said nothing of slaves held in states remaining loyal: he could hardly have claimed war powers if not at war with them.80 He also knew, though, that he didn’t have to: the more blood the Union shed the more just—and, therefore, the more legitimate—emancipation would become. The proclamation, in this sense, was Lincoln’s Tarutino: with no mo

Smuts,

Edward VII ruled the British Empire with a slightly pudgy cigar-stained hand, assuring his subjects that duty was important but so too was fun. “It doesn’t matter what you do,” he said, “so long as you don’t frighten the horses.”

Jacobus Hercules “Koos” de la Rey,