A Magazine of American Culture | Chronicles Magazine

Taiwan, China, and Unnecessary War

While America’s attention remains focused on the North Korea crisis, another dangerous East Asia confrontation has re-emerged.

Mencken and After

Ralph Berry

If Noah Webster was the father of English-language spelling reform, H.L. Mencken was the strong son making good his inheritance. Mencken’s claim was to be the father of the American language.

Niall Ferguson is a distinguished historian of Scottish origin who specializes in big arguments, and contrarian claims. His books are always provocative, frequently infuriating, and often (if not always) correct in their analyses.

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Why the Authoritarian Right Is Rising
Pat Buchanan | April 20, 2018
A fortnight ago, Viktor Orban and his Fidesz Party won enough seats in the Hungarian parliament to rewrite his country's constitution. To progressives across the West, this was disturbing news.
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What Happens When a Few Volunteer and the Rest Just Watch
Andrew J. Bacevich | April 18, 2018
The purpose of all wars, is peace. So observed St. Augustine early in the first millennium A.D. Far be it from me to disagree with the esteemed Bishop of Hippo, but his crisply formulated aphorism just might require a bit of updating.
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Théâtre Syrien
Srdja Trifkovic | April 16, 2018
No matter how transparent or clumsily presented, false flags will achieve their immediate effect if no debate and no critical analysis are allowed.
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Another Reason Why the Agrarians Lost
Tom Landess | April 16, 2018
Andrew Lytle’s “The Hind Tit” is the best essay in I’ll Take My Stand (1930), not only because it focuses on the small, independent farmer, the class the Agrarians most admired, but also because Lytle nails the volume’s primary thesis to the church door, the dilemma his region and nation faced in 1930—the choice between virtue and practicality.
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