rob"o*rant, n. A roborant drug; a restorative or tonic.
The keyword matched 221 entries.
This book from 1948 absolutely trashes Roosevelt's presidency, even his conduct of the war.
There's more to Gunsmoke than I thought. The radio show, at least, was a noir western.
Part two of the Prohibition series. Where did the idea of Prohibition come from?
Part three of the Prohibition series. How did things go, once Prohibition got started and why was it repealed so quickly?
Part four in the Prohibition series. Notes on the sources I used
Part one of the Prohibition series. How did alcohol become so central to human culture in the first place?
Benjamin Roth lived through the Great Depression. His diaries have a lot to say to us today.
I've had a long and bizarre career in computers, but I've managed to be around for most of the really fun stuff.
Why not take more and more from the "rich"? Well, mainly because it's wrong.
Hurlbut was a general, politician and all-around scoundrel.
The recent elections are not a repudiation of the Left or an embrace of the Right. They were a an embrace of the American way of democracy.
Judge John Hancock's Diary is an interesting window into the Civil War, if only we can see through the terrible handwriting.
Western Civilization has almost been wiped out - twice.
The Athenian navy ruled the seas for 150 years, but sank to almost nothing practically overnight. What happened?
There's still one hill that political correctness has not stormed.
There's a reason that we used to teach our kids ancient history.
Victor Davis Hanson argues that it was the farmers, not the bigshots, that made Greece great. I think he's probably right.
There were three Punic wars, each worse than the last.
I came to the subject of Hannibal almost by accident, but it grabbed me and held me for some months.
Which route did Hannibal take through the Alps? Well, academics are certainly glad you asked!
Hannibal's talents made him an irresistible force, Rome's strength of character made them the absolutely resolute immovable object. Which would win?
So, was Hannibal the greatest general of all time? You decide.
The bank notes of countries undergoing hyperinflation cut a few corners...
One of the least-told, but most heroic of all voyages of exploration.
People always seem to have it in for anyone else who is successful.
Photos from the August, 1969, issue of Life magazine.
Giant Brains! Sounds like a zombie movie, but it's actually a blast from our past.
All war is not immoral and we have recent illustrations of this fact.
Fromkin's book explores the causes and events behind the beginning of one of the bloodiest wars in history.
Audio history from World War II
Audio history from World War II
Audio History from World War II
Audio history from World War II
Audio history from World War II
Audio history from World War II
Audio history from World War II
Giglio's book about the Kennedy presidency is well-written and easy to read, but there are some odd things about it.
I'm getting sick of some wag proposing a "Manhattan Project" every time there is a perceived crisis.
Walter Winchell was probably the second most powerful media figure of the 20th century. Wether you've heard of him or not.
Victor Davis Hanson's book on the Peloponnesian war is strikingly relevant to contemporary world events. It's also entertaining and very nicely written.
Elegant design is celebrated today, but it wasn't always uncommon.
The more I learn about Woodrow Wilson, the more I think Jonah Goldberg was right. Wilson was a fascist, he fits the definition to a tee.
H.L. Mencken was about eighty years ahead of his time. Not many people can toss off a newspaper column that's so smart it predicts a scholarly shift eight decades later.
Axelrod's book is more annoying than edifying.
My grandmother's papers reveal some surprising facts.
Obama stands for Change. Where have I heard that before?
Was Woodrow Wilson really a fascist President as Jonah Goldberg claims? Let's check some additional sources and find out.
Goldberg's book is a startling look at the political history of the twentieth century.
You never know what you're going to run into when you start reading the classics.
Norbert Wiener is one of the heros of the Information Age, but you've never heard of him. That's mostly because of his own paranoia and a rather nutty wife.
Twenty five years ago, the city of Austin played a cruel joke on neighborhoods split by the new Mopac freeway. It's time to fix it.
Gibbon's book is a classic and deservedly so. He clearly explains the decline and fall of the Roman empire and has fun doing it.
Here's a message for you folks living in the future: we had it hard back in the olden days
The Cold War has faded from our memories, thanks to the efforts of hundreds of historians.
All conflict now is an information war, but we don't act like we've figured this out yet.
Alan Greenspan's new book surprised me on one thing: he blames US income disparity on the US educational system. Does anyone else think this?
The image of Diem has evolved over the years. From Karnow's judgement to Moyar's we see a distinct pattern emerge.
After the 9/11 attacks, Bush had a very good reason to attack Iraq - and it had nothing to do with WMD's
My grandfather served as a civilian at Camp Swift during WWII, so I couldn't resist this picture book
The image of Ho Chi Minh has evolved over the years. He has gone from altruistic nationalist to fervent communist over the course of fifty years.
History evolves. The participants in events spell out the first understanding of those events, but later generations often find that their understanding was limited by their participation.
For the first time in fifty years, the Highland Lakes are all at flood stage at the same time. We decided to go and see what that looked like.
Even average people in the US are richer than King Soloman himself. Do we appreciate it? And what debts do we owe to it?
An article from the 1955 New Yorker can tell us a lot about what's wrong with our media and politics today.
I love raw history: eye-witness accounts, period diaries and the like. These criminal proceeding at the Old Bailey are a candid look into the lives and crimes of ordinary Englishmen.
Gates' book isn't exactly new, but it's an amazing piece of history that everyone interested in the Cold War should read.
Johnnie's Place was a fun place to hang out in the 1930's.
Robert Gates claims in his book that 1968 was the worst year of modern times, was he right?
Bush had it all: smarts, vision and a sense of history
Noah Smithwick lived a full and rich life during Texas' formative years. Somehow, he lived to write about it.
Hobbes' attempt to put philosophy on scientific grounds and "prove" that the idea of monarchy is good for us isn't very convincing.
From the mid 1600's to the mid 1800's mankind witnessed a remarkable transformation in human ideas. From Hobbes to John Locke to Jeremy Bentham to Voltaire and John Stuart Mill, our world underwent a change of thinking about as profound as any in history.
Karnow's book really does an impressive job of telling a complicated tale.
Duns Scotus has left a very unusual legacy.
Voltaire had it all: he was rational, successful and witty.
It's hard to have perpective on history.
Today seems like a good day to cover a little of the history of Islamic Totalitarianism and understand clearly "why they hate us".
The idea of hating America and Americans is nothing new. That attitude was prevalent back in the 1950's, and probably all of the rest of the time.
A look at Hitler's methods during WWII. Not surprisingly, a lot of the conventional wisdom is suspect.
The second installment in our discussion of Mill.
John Stuart Mill's book is a milestone in democratic thought. Locke set up what government is supposed to do, Mill explains what it must not do.
Jeremy Bentham played an important role in the development of democracy.
This is Locke's most important work, in my opinion. It is the blueprint for a democratic government made up of multiple branches, with checks and balances between them.
A screed against the monarchy that any modern blogger will recognize as a first-rate fisking.
John Locke was one of the fathers of modern democracy. His writings were some of the seeds that started the United States.
The invention of writing with a phonetic alphabet was one of the greatest feats of all time.
Alexis de Tocqueville was an amazing man. In a mere nine months he
traveled the length and breadth of the United States of the 1830's and
came to understand it better than most citizens who live in the US
their whole lives.
More evidence that Europe is in big trouble.
Russia is in even worse trouble than Europe.
Palestine has had a lot of bad luck over the years.
The 1930's were truly terrible years, not just in the US, but all around the world.
Paul Berman's book takes a deep look at the origins of Islamist Extremism.
These days, the 1960's are remembered with nostalgia and fondness. If you really look back, however, you see that it wasn't really a fun decade.
There are more similarities between the presidencies of FDR and George Bush than you might think. Both men had to drag the country kicking and screaming into war and both were reviled in their time.
