Category Archives: Arnold Toynbee

Mao: The Great Famine, The Great Leap Forward & The Demise of Sinic Civilization

Posted on December 9, 2012 by William Holland

The upheavals throughout the Near East have precedent in China.  If one should wish to study the impact that modernity has on archaic civilizations, you can study China throughout the 20th century, especially the rise and rule of Mao.  No … Continue reading →

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The Last Stand of William Manchester

Posted on November 20, 2012 by William Holland

How difficult it is to finally have to let go of an idol that served so well. Some years ago, this personally painful insight fell to one of America’s finest biographers.  William Manchester.  Known for his brilliant work on Churchill, … Continue reading →

Posted in Adolf Hitler, Alex Tocqueville, Arnold Toynbee, Empire, International Relations, Politics | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

How Western Civilization Triumphed Over Every Civilization

Posted on October 28, 2012 by William Holland

Teaching Aristotle or Plato is often hard if not downright difficult, especially when you try to cover the “epoch” between his time and ours.  I mean something very specific. What underwrites Western Civilization is a Judeo-Christian ethic.  Prior to this … Continue reading →

Posted in Antiquity, Arab Spring, Arnold Toynbee, Conservatism, Ethics, Identity Development, International Relations | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Dr. Brendan Simms: Strategery

Posted on May 29, 2012 by William Holland

I’ve always loved how the experts, the specialized mandarins and policy wonks ridiculed Bush for his malapropisms. The overly specialized development of precise language does have its flaws, if only exposed in the caldron of the mundane.  Where else is … Continue reading →

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Structural Unemployment: The New Reality

Posted on May 23, 2012 by William Holland

Other than George Orwell, I can only think of two men who engagingly wrote about the social impact of superior technology on permanent unemployment:  Milton Friedman & Peter Drucker.  Dr. Drucker is a far more sophisticaed realist than the arcane … Continue reading →

Posted in Arnold Toynbee, Central Asia, Education, Frontier, Identity Development, Peter Drucker | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Explorers Of The Nile: Victorian Triumph & Tragedy

Posted on November 28, 2011 by William Holland

Africa was always dubbed ‘The Dark Continent’.  This sobriquet never referred to pigment  of skin, instead it referred to the impenetrable geography that immediately arises from the sands of both East and West Africa.  Prior to the invention of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Arnold Toynbee, Charles Mackay's Delusions & Mania's, Frontier, Measure the Earth | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Explorers Of The Nile: Victorian Triumph & Tragedy

The Morality Of Political Realism: Fortitude For The American Imperium

Posted on August 14, 2011 by William Holland

What are we witnessing in the political and therefore spiritual morass that is a craven European Union, especially geopolitically and strategically?  “Idealism” is a tough sell in American Foreign Policy, but most often it has been alloyed to the social … Continue reading →

Posted in Alex Tocqueville, Antiquity, Arab Spring, Arnold Toynbee, Conservatism, Constitution, Identity Development, International Relations, Islam, Morality, Near East, Pakistan, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Morality Of Political Realism: Fortitude For The American Imperium

George Melloan: The American Imperium For An Uncertain President

Posted on August 12, 2011 by William Holland

George Melloan has written “The Great Money Binge:  Spending Our Way To Socialism,”  out from Simon & Schuster 2009.  As former Editorial page writer and editor for the Wall Street Journal makes him a protege to the most powerful man … Continue reading →

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Osama bin Laden: The Nemesis Of History

Posted on May 4, 2011 by William Holland

The death of Osama bin Laden ushers in an period of relief fit for Sophocles! It should surprise no one that violent revolutionaries are unfit to govern the impact of the means by which they rule.  This tale is well … Continue reading →

Posted in Arnold Toynbee, International Relations, Islam, Near East, Pakistan, Raymond Aron, Satan/Evil, Sun Tzu, Terrorism | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Osama bin Laden: The Nemesis Of History

John Paul II: The Defeat Of Modernity & A New Birth Of Freedom

Posted on August 27, 2010 by William Holland

Raymond Aron, Isaiah Berlin, Winston Churchill and Pope John Paul II had much in common.  Aron and the French left were ardent in their support of a secular humanism that had its birth in 1789, Berlin was a deracinated Jew … Continue reading →

Posted in Arnold Toynbee, Eric Voegelin, John Paul II, Morality, Theology, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment