Are there historical antecedents to the rise of Islamo-fascism? What can we quarry from authors struggling to maintain an even gaze on such political violence? How do they shape both our ability to perceive enemies and our response to such mortal threats? Perhaps the very best writers on such topics remain Robert Conquest and Henry Kissenger. Their writings are tomes on violent political change.
Robert Conquest’s “Reflections On A Ravaged Century” and Henry Kissenger’s Harvard doctoral dissertation “A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh & The Problems of Peace” is perfectly suited for any starving reader who wishes to discern the future movements that will confront American civilization.
Both men describe the problems confronting a stable diplomatic system when it is faced with a revolutionary power, a power that does not accept the western political economy as legitimate. Both men show in minute detail how established ruling monarchies were confounded by the passion of the revolutionaries, their incredulous force of determination to confront the west. The established powers were lulled by a long age of stability that engendered old habits of political reference; they simply could not see any future rival. They were baffled when the revolutionaries turned out to be revolutionary!
The writings of Conquest detail the lethargy the west continues as it pursues strategies of containment that only embolden rivals. Throughout, Conquest reveals that the west possesses the same complacency in its inability to envision a determined and ethnically diverse fifth column.
The wars of the 20th century are testament to the twin thesis that both stability is unnatural and revolutionary rivals must be confronted early, for they sustain fortitude in their engagements making an inevitable confrontation deadly.
William Holland
William Holland 