Joseph Stromberg

TERMINOLOGICAL FOREWORD It is best to clear up a few conceptual issues before looking at the thought of Walter Karp.   The first question is: What is republican theory?  We have to ask questions like that these days, in this country, because most people have lost the thread and have little idea what the American Revolution … Continue reading “Harry Elmer Barnes (1889-1968): Progressive and Revisionist”

TERMINOLOGICAL FOREWORD It is best to clear up a few conceptual issues before looking at the thought of Walter Karp.   The first question is: What is republican theory?  We have to ask questions like that these days, in this country, because most people have lost the thread and have little idea what the American Revolution … Continue reading “Walter Karp (1934-1989): War Critic and Republican Theorist”

Many people take social theory to be a fortress held by the left. In many respects this is true. This is not, however, a good reason to eschew social theory. As much as I admire the late Russell Kirk, I do not think that his constant refrain against reason was much help in addressing the … Continue reading “Empire, ‘Overstretch,’ and the Joys of Collapse”

Edward Palmer Thompson (1924-93): Historian, Neutralist, Marxist MY FAVORITE MARXIST People may or may not have a favorite Martian – although several are running for President this time around – but some of us do have a favorite Marxist. This takes a little explaining. After all, Marxism ought to be lying in ruins, its theoretical … Continue reading “Edward Palmer Thompson (1924-93): Historian, Neutralist, Marxist”

GLOOM AND DOOM From time to time, writers fret about the decline of the west. Some of them worried about it so prematurely that today they stand dismissed as dreary fellows, who just weren’t up to enjoying the radiant future upon which we have entered. Oswald Spengler, after all, was ponderously Teutonic and pro-Prussian and … Continue reading “Declines, Untergänge, and Other Unpleasant Matters”

GONE ABOUT AS FAR AS THEY CAN GO I begin with the WSJ of January 1, 2000. Mr. Thomas Petzinger tells us that everything’s up-to-date in Cyber City. Well, not exactly, and yet his article is not lacking in truth. It is true that communication costs and transaction costs are being reduced. It is true … Continue reading “Futurism, Fukuyama, and Folksong Hermeneutics”

POST NO MILLENNIA This whole millennium business is a bit wearing. Leaving aside the open secret that the new millennium begins in 2001, there’s all the Y2K hype and fear-mongering, only some of which comes to us courtesy of caring governments and organs of state security. This has something to do with the “complex of … Continue reading “Time, Millennia, Empires, and Everything”

Empire is not like the weather, which is sometimes said to be the subject of much talk and little action. Generally, Americans don’t even talk about empire, so they’re not likely to do anything for or against it. That is a shame, since the existence of a world-saving and world-straddling American empire surely does things … Continue reading “Truth or Consequences in an Age of Empire”

FELIX MORLEY (1894-1981) Felix Morley served the cause we now call the Old Right for many years. His thought was a well-wrought synthesis of classical republicanism and classical liberalism. This led people to see him as a "conservative" – but let’s not argue labels just now. Born in Pennsylvania in 1894 to English parents, Morley … Continue reading “Felix Morley: An Old-fashioned Republican”

LIBERTARIAN AND GEORGIST Frank Chodorov (1887-1966) could well be called a libertarian’s libertarian. The eleventh child of Russian immigrants on the Lower West Side of New York, he was named Fishel Chodorowsky but was "always known as Frank Chodorov."1 A 1907 graduate of Columbia University, he had a textile business, followed by a mail-order clothing … Continue reading “Frank Chodorov: A Libertarian’s Libertarian”