RealClearHistory Articles

On April 4, 2003, as the invasion of Iraq reached its critical phase, the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 3rdInfantry Division, seized Saddam International Airport–codenamed Objective Lions–on the western outskirts of Baghdad. The operation marked one of the most decisive conventional victories of the war. It didn’t hinge on advanced sensors or over-the-horizon fires. It hinged on tempo–speed, initiative, and sustained shock. I was there, leading an infantry platoon in Charlie Company, 2-7 Infantry, attached to Task Force 3-69 Armor. We had just come off a...

August 8th marks 80 years since the dawn of the atomic age. This is a story about two cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and two remarkable men: Jacob Beser and Tsutomu Yamaguchi. Beser, a First Lieutenant in the US Army Air Corps at the time, was the only crewmember aboard both planes that dropped the atomic bombs. Tsutomu Yamaguchi, meanwhile, is famously known as the only person officially recognized by the Japanese government to have survived both bombings. The first bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m. local time, when the B-29 bomber Enola Gay released an atomic bomb...

822 years ago, on August 1st of 1203, crusaders looked on as an elderly blind man and his irresponsible son were crowned Roman Emperors in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, the capital of the Christian Roman Empire. Despite the splendor of the coronation rites, it must have dawned on at least some of the crusaders that they were not supposed to be here at all. These very men had taken vows three years ago to deliver Jerusalem, which had been lost to the Muslims under Saladin in 1187. Since that time, they had gotten themselves in debt to the Venetians whom they had hired to ferry them...

As the Supreme Court wraps up its annual flurry of blockbuster rulings, it’s easy to focus on the winners—the parties who prevailed, the doctrines that triumphed, the justices whose views carried the day. But the end of the term is also a good time to remember that in the long arc of constitutional history, some of the most important victors began as losers. No one embodies that better than Myra Bradwell. In 1873, Bradwell—a brilliant legal mind, newspaper founder, and civil rights reformer—was denied the right to practice law by the Supreme Court. In an 8–1...

In Noah Hawley’s Fargo, a fictional tale of pervasive crime and tested loyalty, Kansas City mafia hitman Mike Milligan ponders the following: "Ironically, in astronomy, the word 'revolution' means 'a celestial object that comes full circle.' Which, if you think about it, is pretty funny, considering here on earth it means change." As our nation marches toward its 250th anniversary next year, some of today’s social and political dynamics continue to shift—and not for the better. A self-proclaimed democratic socialist mayoral candidate in New York City...

Some souls shine like stars in life—and blaze even more brightly in death, defying the darkness that abhors their light and seeks to extinguish it. And yet the stars, steadfast in their courses, shine on—and the darkness cannot overcome them. Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna—“Ella” to those who knew her—was one such soul. Once hailed as the most beautiful woman in Europe, she was born a princess of Hesse-Darmstadt and married into the Romanov dynasty at its zenith. But her most extraordinary acts came not in the splendor of court life, but in its...

 The ancient Romans expanded their power and influence by treaties, alliances, and wars, eventually controlling the Italian peninsula, assimilating the neighboring Etruscan culture to the northeast and the Greek culture in the southern part of the peninsula. From Italy, the Roman power extended over the littoral Mediterranean, gradually incorporating a large part of Europe, Asia Minor, and much of the North African coast–conquests in three continents, from the British isles to the Middle East. The Romans reached a pinnacle of civilization disseminating the Graeco-Roman culture...

There is a sickness inside our hearts. It aches for something brighter, better, a more resplendent mode of being. God, perhaps. Or temporary deliverance from the pain of being alive, and of knowing we will die. It urges us to create something: family; home; work; and art. To contribute something good and useful to future generations. But it also impels us to assert ourselves here and now, to compete for power over others. Please allow me to introduce myself … Because it feels good to have power—telling people what to do, getting things done. The boss sets the agenda, defines...

To say the international environment has become more challenging is an understatement. China, Russia, and North Korea explicitly challenge American leadership, and they aim to erase America’s military lead. Iran and its proxies have been wounded by recent attacks, but they also wish to degrade American power. The U.S. must up its game in appropriations, technology, rapid acquisition of new weapons, shipbuilding, training, doctrine, and recruiting. Equally important is the sound preparation of new officers at the Air Force Academy, West Point, and Annapolis. Three history courses are...

Hamilton, Gifted Immigrant, Student, and Soldier Alexander Hamilton (1755–1804) was born in the West Indies on the island of Nevis in the Caribbean, descended from the laird of Grange in Scotland on his father’s side and from French Huguenots on his mother’s side. Hamilton was brought up in relative poverty and was orphaned at the age of 13. Hugh Knox, a Presbyterian minister in the islands, recognized Hamilton as a child prodigy. As an extremely proficient clerk at a Counting House in St. Croix, Hamilton’s employers also acknowledged his precocity and intelligence,...

Donald Trump is the first mythic hero of the twenty-first century. That many recoil at this statement does not deny its obvious truth. Heroism isn’t about winning a popularity contest. The modern usage of the term hero has stripped the concept of its former glory. A man who runs into a burning building to rescue strangers may indeed act selflessly and heroically, but his name will not be remembered in years to come. In the classic definition, the archetypal hero is known by his contemporaries and through the ages. A hero isn’t created by one act of mercy, strength, or...

The founding of Rome is in the realm of myth and legend as well as history. Rome’s historic past was obscured by the mist of time, and so when the Romans reached their apogee, and Rome had become the greatest and most powerful city in the world, Roman historians felt that her fantastic achievement in the Mediterranean world and beyond was worthy of a glorious and heroic past. The Romans were aware of such Greek epic poetry as the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as other mythological Hellenic literature in addition to works of history and philosophy. The Romans admired...

On a frigid morning in December 1812, the remnants of Napoleon’s once-mighty Grande Armée staggered across the Berezina River, their uniforms in tatters, their numbers decimated, and their dreams of conquest shattered. The sight was almost unimaginable just months earlier, when over 600,000 soldiers had marched confidently into Russia, expecting a swift and glorious victory. Yet, the Russian campaign would become a byword for military disaster, forever altering the course of European history. The collapse of Napoleon’s 1812 invasion of Russia was a consequence of the...

On Independence Day, Americans across the nation will gather with friends and family to enjoy cookouts, pool parties, picnics—and, of course, fireworks. It is a good thing to celebrate the nation that Abraham Lincoln once called “the last, best hope of earth.” But we would do well to reread the Declaration of Independence with our loved ones and to remember what the words mean. In the 1850s, as the United States was careening toward Civil War, Abraham Lincoln urged his fellow citizens to remember the words of the Declaration and to abide by their ideals. When the Supreme...

Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138-78 BC) was a patrician aristocrat who entered the army under the general Gaius Marius. In the Roman war against Numidia in North Africa, Sulla was instrumental in defeating the Numidians and capturing their king Jugurtha. In the Germanic invasion of the Teutons ad Cimbrians, Sulla again distinguished himself under Marius. Both men fought in the Social War in which Rome vanquished the Italians. Subsequently, though, the two generals parted company and became bitter enemies—Marius favoring the populares; Sulla, the optimate political faction. In the coming war...

When Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, he delivered astonishing news: enslaved people in the furthest reaches of the former Confederacy were now free. With the Civil War at an end, the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by President Abraham Lincoln two years earlier, was finally in effect in every corner of the tentatively reunified nation. People who had known bondage and degradation their whole lives were suddenly free. This day of overdue justice, of exhilarating good news, this answer to the prayers of millions of Americans, would later...

Samuel Huntington’s well-known “clash of civilizations” paradigm divides the world into eight distinctive and mutually exclusive cultural zones and predicts that the wars of the future will break out along the fault lines between them. One of Huntington’s fault lines runs between central and eastern Europe marking the boundary between two civilizations: “Western Civilization” and “Orthodox Civilization.” If we attend to this map we note how Poland, Czechia, and Hungary belong to the former category; Ukraine belongs to the latter. Without...

On June 8, 1789, James Madison rose before Congress and performed an about-face. The founder who had opposed the addition of a bill of rights to the Constitution conceded to pressure from advocates of adding amendments to protect Americans against abuses of government power. He gave a speech in which he defended amendments he never wanted.  Madison understood that in the critical moment of the nascent republic, compromise was necessary to move the country forward. His example of moderation amidst hostile rhetoric on both sides is a timely reminder in our present moment of...

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, who had covertly aided the American Revolution, had long coveted his civil rights. And in the France of the 1780s, he used the theater not only as a center of major entertainment but also as a political weapon, reaching all classes of Frenchmen. In addition to his business, and scientific accomplishments, Beaumarchais had achieved tremendous notoriety as a playwright with his celebrated plays, The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro. (Composers Gioachino Rossini and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart subsequently transformed...