Michael Oakeshott rejected the philosophical dominance of scientism and called for a complete understanding of human nature, in all its complexity, by an examination of imaginative qualities of the human mind. A review of Roy Tseng’s book, The Sceptical Idealist.
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If it’s an objective opinion you desire, predicated on facts gleaned from forensic science, then Dr. Cyril Wecht is your man. A review of Tales from the Morgue. [...] Tom Sandy's latest thriller is the work of a maturing novelist who refuses to recast his earlier work but is seeking to expand and explore the dark side of human nature. [...] Cabin Creek has the incomparable Jerry West, Bridgeport, Ohio brags of its native son, John Havlicek, but the greatest shooter of them all, Bevo Francis, is from Columbiana County, Ohio. [...] Dr. Larry Arnhart has written an interesting book that calls for conservatives to embrace Darwinian evolutionary theory and thus make themselves presentable at the altar of scientism. [...] Columbus, Ohio attorney Eric J. Wittenberg has crafted a splendid study of one of America’s military icons, General Philip Sheridan, late of the Army of the Potomac. Little Phil: A Reassessment of the Civil War Leadership of Gen. Phillip H. Sheridan DUTY IS THE SUBLIMEST WORD IN OUR LANGUAGE. DO YOUR DUTY IN ALL THINGS. YOU CANNOT DO MORE. YOU SHOULD NEVER WISH TO DO LESS. Those history books written for popular consumption tend to be of two distinct categories. First, there are those books by authors whose creativity and talents deliver a narrative that is supported by a prose that rivals the finest novelists. Such distinguished authors as David McCullough, Shelby Foote, and Allan Eckert immediately spring to mind, though Mr. Eckert has been criticized for playing a little too loose with the historical data. Nevertheless, authors such as these are able to craft their historical narrative in such a way as to not only inform the reader but to entertain as well. The second category of historical writers is more interested in historical content and/or the re-examination of events. The latter tend to be a little drier and sometimes academic but they do, on many occasions, deliver a literate, incisive, objective, and interesting study. An author within that second category is Columbus, Ohio attorney Eric J. Wittenberg, who has crafted a splendid study of one of America’s military icons, General Philip Sheridan, late of the Army of the Potomac. To his credit Wittenberg has scoured the available sources and retrieved innumerable gems with which to illustrate a military career much different than the one described in standard histories. To be sure, Phil Sheridan, who carried the sobriquet, “Little Phil,” because of his diminutive size, was at least at the beginning and the end of his career a fighter, which is no small tribute for a general officer of the Army of the Potomac. But, even in the beginning of the War Between the States his actions were not without controversy. At Perryville he violated orders and brought on an unwanted general engagement. At Missionary Ridge he took unwarranted credit for seizing Confederate artillery. But, in his defense, at Stones River he had his division fully prepared for the Confederate onslaught and displayed the most efficacious use of artillery by any officer during the war. His efforts, and those of his gallant division, saved The Army of the Cumberland from annihilation. Regardless of his actions, Phil Sheridan was promoted time and time again. In April of 1864 he was brought east and placed in command of the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac. The author’s analysis of Sheridan’s term of command, his tactics, and his failed leadership leaves little to doubt. “Although history remembers Philip H. Sheridan,” Wittenberg writes, “as the greatest cavalry commander of the Civil War (sic), the evidence simply does not support the conclusion.” Wittenberg’s description and overview of the 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign that pitted Sheridan against the irascible Jubal Early is among the best written and a must read for any student of the “late unpleasantness.” The author’s summation sets the record straight, “A truly great general, one with the killer instinct, would have pressed on to destroy his foe. In doing so, Sheridan would have brought the war to a faster conclusion….Many more good men lost their lives as a result.” Timid, slow, and rarely commanding from the front after ascending to corps then army command (with the exception of the final campaign of the war), Sheridan was also disobedient and his “cruelty and pettiness toward his brother officers” bespoke a small man, indeed. And, his cruelty is best described in his cashiering Maj. Gen. W. W. Averell, perhaps the most competent cavalry officer in his command, his removal of Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, the “hero of Little Round Top,” following the battle of Five Forks, and his betrayal of his oldest and dearest friend, Maj. Gen. George Crook. Wittenberg covers these events closely and provides a powerful rebuttal of the “received” wisdom concerning General Sheridan. The author warns his readers, in his “introduction,” that there is some redundancy and he is correct; I did find it somewhat annoying. But, the scholarship, research, and manner in which he presented his evidence has produced a work that is easy to read and understand, even for the “beginning” civil war (sic) enthusiast. Wittenberg has eschewed any obligation to “political correctness” found in too many histories. His analysis is always logical and objective. He has researched the military career of Phil Sheridan and found a lesser general, and a mendacious, solipsistic, man. Eric J. Wittenberg’s Little Phil is a desirable book for any scholar of the “late unpleasantness;” it will be much cited in future works. Bob Cheeks has written for The American Enterprise, Human Events, Southern Partisan, and The Pittsburgh Tribune Review. Email Bob Cheeks In his recent book, Dr. Robert Higgs argues that war always ratchets up the power of the state and that its primary product is death and suffering. Resurgence of the Warfare State: The Crisis Since 9/11 Dr. Robert Higgs’s latest book, Resurgence of the Warfare State: The Crisis Since 9/11, is a compilation of “dozens of statements, commentaries, and other forms of expression…” that he has written and disseminated since the massacre of 9/11. It is a timely and erudite book that takes the position that the Islamic attack on America would “primarily provide government and business interests the opportunity to enrich themselves at the expense of the public’s wealth, lives, and liberties in the U.S. and around the world.” Higgs’s finest attribute is his ability to deftly apply arcane government statistics, weave them into the appropriate historical background, and in a few adroit sentences explain to the lay reader just how Leviathan has empowered itself at the expense of our public treasure and liberties. For example, in his essay “Free Enterprise and War, A Dangerous Liaison,” Higgs writes, In World War I, the government imposed a variety of unprecedented controls on business. It nationalized outright the firms in the railroad, telephone, and telegraph industries…It fixed scores of industrial commodity prices, intervened extensively in management-labor relations, and promoted unionization and collective bargaining. It hiked corporate income taxes to undreamt-of heights and added a huge excess-profits tax on top of them. The net result of all this government dictation, taxation, takeover, and all around meddling became known to contemporaries as ‘war socialism.’ Higgs’s forte is economics and he shines when revealing to the public the spending proclivities of the federal government. Unfortunately, economics can make my eyes glaze over, but the author has that ability to sustain and expand even my short attention span. In his essay “The Defense Budget is Bigger Than You Think,” he reveals that their (Department of Defense) “super-grand total in fiscal year 2004 will reach the astonishing amount of nearly $754 billion…” The author’s criticism of the American government is non-political in the sense that, regardless of the party affiliation of the man in the presidency, he is opposed to the constant expansion of state power. He is an honorable reactionary and an advocate of the old republic’s first principles and in that I applaud his efforts (he’s written ten books) and agree with his conclusions. In his essay “George Bush’s Faith-Based Foreign Policy,” he writes, “Whatever else Iraq may be, it certainly is not a democratic success story waiting to be told by American crusaders. Indeed, given the violent ethnic, religious, and political conflicts that ravage this unfortunate country, it may not be viable under any form of government except dictatorship — nothing in its history suggests otherwise.” Higgs, of course, has hit the proverbial nail on the head. President Bush’s much touted efforts “to bring democracy to the Middle East” are fraught with peril and any American history book available to any high school student across the land tells us as much. But what if George Bush was fighting the right war, but for the wrong reasons. The question of WMD’s (weapons of mass destruction) is superfluous; Iraq’s WMD’s were used against the Kurds and perhaps they were later destroyed or buried. The question is, were they a threat to the U.S. and the answer is no. Were they a threat to our ally Israel, the answer is yes. And, if Iraq was a threat to Israel, what should be our response? Also, we might ask if Iraq has participated in a causa belli against the United States. In his essay “What’s So Special About Those Killed by Hijackers on September 11, 2001?”, Higgs argues that the Murrah Federal Building bombing (April 19, 1995) is not remembered to the degree that the 9/11 massacre is because the perpetrators were two disgruntled, former U.S. soldiers (the now deceased Timothy McVeigh and his cohort, Terry Nichols) who blew up the building in response to “the government’s own murderous assault on the Branch Davidians at Waco precisely two years earlier.” Higgs has it right on the Branch Davidian massacre, but errs, I think, on the Murrah bombing. If former T.V. journalist Jayna Davis is correct (see her book, The Third Terrorist), and I believe she has done a great service for her country, then the Murrah building bombing was orchestrated under an umbrella group, The Armed Islamic Movement, which was established by the secret services of Iraq and Iran in retaliation for Gulf War I. AIM utilized former Iraqi special ops soldiers for the assault while planning, coordination, and financial support came from Osama bin Laden’s henchman, Ramzi Yousef. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were utilized to assist in assembling the bomb’s ingredients and help take it to the target; they were merely “mules.” If Ms. Davis’s findings of fact are accurate, and she has reams of documentation, then Iraq and Iran perpetrated an act of war against the United States and America’s invasion of Iraq is justified. The Clinton administration’s cowardly obfuscations of the Murrah bombing and the Bush administration’s abject failure to reveal the truth of the matter will forever cloud America’s response in its war with Islam. I agree with Dr. Higgs’s argument that war always “ratchets up the power” of the state, that war’s primary product is death and suffering, and that the Patriot Act has the potential of weakening our liberties; however, we must make a sober examination of the current state of affairs. Osama bin Laden has called for the death of four million Americans (two million must be children) and, according to some sources, has located sleeper cells and suitcase nukes inside the United States (see Paul Williams’ The al Qaeda Connection). Islamic terrorists have been at war with us since 1979 and whatever their reasons for war we must accept the fact that we are in a fight for our lives against a fanatical foe that has no intentions of laying down their arms. Until we recognize that we are at war with a significant majority of Islam and act accordingly we are doomed to suffer significant casualties at the hands of the Muslims. Dr. Higgs’s book is an astute critique of the Bush administration and the Orwellian concept of “perpetual war for perpetual peace,” but commingled within the muck and mire of Bush’s mishandling of objectives of the Iraq war is the very real war with Islam. On this matter Dr. Higgs is silent. Bob Cheeks has written for The American Enterprise, Human Events, Southern Partisan, and The Pittsburgh Tribune Review. Email Bob Cheeks As Paul Williams makes clear in his recent book, either the mujahadeen will destroy us or we will destroy them. [...] In his new novel, Thomas Moore has taken two disparate societies linked by memory, ancestry, oral tradition, and history, and placed them, juxtaposed, against the shimmering tapestry of time. [...] Professor Vigen Guroian’s book Rallying the Really Human Things is a powerful and provocative defense of traditional Christian humanism in its conflict with secularism. [...] Regis Martin has produced a delightful study of America’s greatest novelist, a “gem” of a book that will lure new readers to the little lady of Andalusia. [...] Dean Koontz is the master of the moral dilemma and he surely stayed awake many nights conjuring up the unique plot in his new thriller, Velocity. [...] In his latest offering, Joel Rosenberg has succeeded in exposing modernity to the lens of scripture, and in his creativity, has crafted a clever, layered, and nuanced story that reaches across religion and culture. [...] Professor Anthony Flew has recently republished God & Philosophy, an excellent secondary source for studying the arguments raised by secular humanists since the Enlightenment. [...] John Lukacs’ work rejects Descartes’ idea that history can be defined as a science, or even a social science, that it is reducible to raw data much like physics. Rather, the historical imperative is “understanding.” [...] In his essay "The Bourgeois Interior," Professor John Lukacs argues that, in the past three hundred years, the people who have made the most significant and important contributions to society have come from a bourgeois upbringing. [...] In his latest book, Prince of Fire, Daniel Silva has revived the spy thriller and written a novel that describes the pain felt by both Arabs and Jews. [...] William Watkins’ Reclaiming the American Revolution is a must read for every citizen concerned about the real meaning of liberty and the future of this country. [...] According to Dr. Ivan Eland’s new book, both political parties have ignored the prescient warnings of the founders who spoke loudly against foreign interventions and entanglements. [...] At the YMCA in East Liverpool, Ohio, in 1968, I encountered Bevo Francis, who held the record for most points scored in a college basketball game. [...] The first wave of baby boomers were proud adherents to the old Rhythm and Blues and Doo-Wop of the late 50’s and early 60’s, as represented by Les Cooper’s Wiggle Wobble. [...] Throughout my life I have always experienced the joys of Christmas. But once, many years ago, in order to keep that string of joyous Christmases intact, there had to be a miracle. [...] Jayna Davis was among the first at the scene of the most brutal and bloody attack on the American homeland in the Twentieth century, the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, on April 19, 1995. [...] Ten years after its founding, the League of the South has published a manifesto, The Grey Book, to express its political philosophy and objectives. [...] Wendell Berry is America’s finest novelist and That Distant Land, a book that contains both a map of the Port William area and a genealogy of the families, is an excellent place to begin your journey with the Port William membership. [...] |
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