François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) was a French writer, diplomat and historian famous for his posthumous autobiography Memoirs from Beyond the Tomb. The book is appealing for its admixture of blunt honesty and romantic reflection that capture the spirit of the times in a way that enables the reader to feel he is a participant himself.
The former Russian Empire was torn apart by chaos and civil war from 1917 to 1922. On one side were the Bolshevists, seeking to impose a revolutionary communist society on the people; and on the other were the so-called “White” Russians, a collection of nationalists and traditionalists trying to dislodge the Red regime. Why did the Reds win and the Whites lose? Why were the Reds able to remain in power? We explore some answers.
The following anecdote is related in Ibn Khallikan’s short biographical profile of the philologist and rhetorician Al-Said. His full name was Abu al-Said Ibn al-Hasan Ibn Isa Al-Raba’i. Verbal abilities are highly prized in cultures with rich literary traditions, and this tale bears testament to this fact.
As Europe took shape in the early medieval period, the vernacular languages found their voices in popular epics and ballads. This was not an accident; access to Latin and its literature required literacy, and this was something not easy to come by at that time. But the lay audiences of Europe began to develop their own voices, and these soon coalesced by degrees into coherent form. The tradition was mostly oral at first, until these songs and ballads began to be written down. In every new civilization it seems that the epic ballad occupies the first stage of literary expression; perhaps this is because a people must first master their environments before they can have the leisure to philosophize. And mastery of the environment means capability in war.
I had a chance to see a few movies while aboard ship during the past couple of weeks. Here are some of the results.
Some recent travel experiences reminded me of a passage from Machiavelli’s Discourses, an intermittent companion of mine these past few weeks. The quote appears in I.17 and contains several related ideas which we will comment on.
This podcast was recorded several days ago but I was only now able to upload it. In it we talk about some impressions gained from brief visits to Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Mexico.
In recent weeks I have had a chance to visit for a short time a few of the republics in Central America: Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia (South America, but close enough), Guatemala, and Mexico. I have been trying to upload a podcast I recorded on the subject, but internet connections are so slow that I will have to wait a bit more on that; the upload times are just too long. I’ve been posting photos on my Instagram account for those who are interested in seeing them. Continue reading
If a political scientist were asked who might be the most misunderstood writer of political theory, he would probably have the name of Machiavelli high on his list. To his name have been ascribed sinister motivations and calculated duplicity; and unscrupulous cherry-picking of his quotes has fashioned him into an ogre in the popular mind.
Quintus Curtius 
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