How can a libertarian oppose decolonization? Colonization not only oppressed conquered peoples, as the staunchest early classical liberals never tired of pointing out, but also burdened the taxpayers of the home country, who were forced to pay through the nose for...
History
History and Peace
by Sheldon Richman | Jun 2, 2024 | Blog, History
"[E]very person must take his life and every nation must take its history as it comes; nothing is more useless than complaining over errors that can no longer be rectified, nothing more vain than regret. Neither as judges allotting praise and blame nor as avengers...
History and Conflict
by Sheldon Richman | Jun 1, 2024 | Blog, History, Justice, Libertarianism
"We cannot eradicate the past from our memories. But it is not the task of history to kindle new conflicts by reviving hatreds long since dead and by searching the archives for pretexts for new conflicts. We do not have to revenge crimes committed centuries ago by...
Goodbye to Pete McCloskey, an Antiwar Hero
by Connor Freeman | May 20, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, History, Politics
From Richard Nixon to the Israel lobby, the late Republican Congressman Paul Norton “Pete” McCloskey Jr. challenged the most powerful elements of the ruling class on the American people’s behalf. On September 29, 1927, McCloskey was born in San Bernardino, California....
TGIF: What Is Self-Determination?
by Sheldon Richman | May 10, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, History, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
People go on quite a bit about self-determination these days. Some decry the denial of self-determination to "the Palestinians." Others insist that only "the Jewish people" can have the right to self-determination between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea....
Zionism versus Judaism
by Sheldon Richman | May 8, 2024 | Blog, History
From the start, political Zionists identified their program with Judaism the religion (despite their secularism, even atheism). Also from the start, Jews -- including the most tradition-bound Jews -- vigorously disavowed that identification. They were shamed as...
It Was Gun Control: What Started the War for Independence
by Michael Boldin | Apr 22, 2024 | Featured Articles, History
The fighting at Lexington and Concord didn’t happen because the British army came to collect taxes. It was gun control. Of course, the government-run schools don’t teach this. What finally forced the patriots into a shooting war with the British Army at Lexington and...
History Last, Polemics First: A Critical Review of Jacob Heilbrunn’s ‘America Last’
by Brandan P. Buck | Apr 2, 2024 | Book Reviews, Featured Articles, History, Politics
The Western commentariat has spilled much ink and expended considerable effort attempting to explain our era of political malaise, particularly the disruptions underway within the Republican Party and the American Right. It is into that maelstrom that Jacob Heilbrunn...