Cambridge economist Ha-Joon Chang assesses the South Korean economic miracle in his Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (pp. 12-15). It is indeed miraculous. South Korea has gone from being one of the world’s poorest countries to having a per capita . . . . Continue Reading »
An article over at the Atlantic web site describes the original purpose of diamond engagement ring: “A now-obsolete law called the ‘Breach of Promise to Marry’ once allowed women to sue men for breaking off an engagement. Back then, there was a high premium on women being virgins . . . . Continue Reading »
In her new essay collection, When I Was a Child I Read Books: Essays , Marilynne Robinson suggests that the difference between the Eastern and Western US is that “in the West ‘lonesome’ is a word with strongly positive connotations.’” Wandering the forests of Idaho in . . . . Continue Reading »
In his Church History , Socrates Scholasticus exemplifies the character of the renowned miracle-worker Paphnutius, bishop of Upper Thebes and victim of the Diocletian persecution by recounting a speech he made at Nicea: “It seemed fit to the bishops to introduce a new law into the Church, . . . . Continue Reading »
Stephenson’s does a superb job of explaining the impulse beyind the Diocletian persecution, which, he says, came from Diocletian and not, as Christians were inclined to say, from Galerius. At the heart of the persecution was an effort to revive romanitas , understood in the narrow sense that . . . . Continue Reading »
Stephenson’s discussion of the “pacifism” of the early church is balanced. “One cannot overstate,” he begins, “the essential messiness of early Christianity, which was not a monolithic set of beliefs but countless local sets of ideas and practices. Moreover, we . . . . Continue Reading »
In his fine recent biography of Constantine , Paul Stephenson explains the growth of Christianity as a result of “sex, health, and arithmetic.” The sex part has partly to do with abortion and infanticide, but more deeply with the basic family structure of ancient Rome: “If the . . . . Continue Reading »
Bilington again: The nationalist ideal spread throughout Europe through Napoleon, “the first ruler to base a political regime exclusively upon the nation . . . the most powerful purely national symbol that any nation has had.” Poles and Italians were inspired by the French example; . . . . Continue Reading »
Billington helpfully focuses on the issue of nationalism to describe the differences between French and American revolutionary movements. In France, nationalism was an inspiration for revolution from the beginning. La nation was “a new fraternity in which lesser loyalties as well as petty . . . . Continue Reading »
In his endlessly fascinating classic Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith , Librarian of Congress James Billington notes that, though ancient, the triangle of values in the slogan of the French Revolution took on “a new mystical aura” during the 18th and 19th . . . . Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
