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The Long View

The Long View: God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World

This is a fascinating book review twelve years later, as one of the major themes of John J. Reilly’s review of Walter Russell Mean’s God and Gold [Amazon link] is the durability of the maritime order, the geopolitical dominance of free trade and free thinking that got started

The Long View 2007-09-07: Catholic Reformation; The Bottom Billion; Fortress Switzerland; Malingering Dinosaurs

Damian Thompson has had an interesting career. He has written on conspiracy theories, the Latin Mass, and apocalyptic beliefs. I don’t recall this blog post specifically, but I do remember reading Counterknowledge [Amazon link] in 2008. Catholic Reformation; The Bottom Billion; Fortress Switzerland; Malingering Dinosaurs I spoke to Damian

The Long View 2007-09-05: Eureka; Babyboomski; Chambers Initiative; The Deal to Save Iraq

Demography is always more mysterious, and the data messier, than the models that get used often imply. In this post, John looks at early signs that Russian demographics were exiting the death spiral state of more deaths than births in 2007. The absolute difference wouldn’t cross zero for another

The Long View 2007-08-30: Anarchy! Orthography! Liturgy!

A bit of a return to current events commentary here. An item of interest is the response of the Patriarch of Moscow commenting on the motu proprio of Benedict XVI allowing greater freedom to celebrate the Latin mass. If you think the Second Vatican Council roiled Catholicism, you should see

The Long View: In the Wake of the Plague

There is a lot of chaos and recrimination now that lots of prominent forecasts of COVID-19 have been publicly revised. However, you shouldn’t fret too much if people can’t get the impact of a major infectious disease correct in the moment; it is entirely possible to screw it

The Long View 2007-08-24: The Sublimity of Bush; Health Care Misdirection; Immigration & Bubbles

I read a lot of David Warren, because John read him. Much like John, David later came to regret some of his enthusiasm for the Iraq War, and retreated to a life of prayer and contemplation, much like Benedict XVI. Warren’s quote here reminds me of my youth, when

Veteran commenter Subforum rejoins the fray

Subforum posts this on the August 11th, 2007 The Long View blog: *Even when no litigable entitlement was at issue, the Great Society fostered the development of the acrimonious niche-politics that we call multiculturalism. The niches by their nature could not recognize a common good; the closest they could come