RealClearHistory Articles

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the loss of an architectural wonder in South London. At 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 30, 1936, staff reported that fire had broken out at the vast Crystal Palace at Sydenham Hill, Upper Norwood. This Victorian glass and iron masterpiece, opened by Queen Victoria in 1854, faced catastrophe. A force of 438 firefighters and 88 fire engines attempted to fight the conflagration, but strong westerly winds fed the fire beyond all control. Interior wood flooring and fittings soon fueled the blaze. Flames leapt hundreds of feet high. First, the 384-foot-long glass transept...

When was the last time you saw a teenage boy with a book in his hand? A phone, alas, probably all the time. But a book? Unless a teacher stuck it there, you’re as likely to find a boy holding an abacus as reading a book. But one man in North Carolina is out to change that. Andrew M. Dare (a pseudonym, because he disdains celebrity, and because he doesn’t actually exist, being in fact the creation of Tony Daniel and David Afsharirad) is an adventurer who has climbed mountains in Nepal, surfed and sailed around the world, and challenged his body in Ironman competitions. Now he has...

No, the Continental Congress did not first vote for independence on July 4, 1776. Seven weeks earlier, on May 15, Congress authorized the thirteen former colonies to adopt constitutions and establish sovereign state governments. This authorization was a de facto declaration of independence. The newly formed states assumed the exclusive right to govern, make laws, and manage internal affairs. Radically, the resolution required each state to replace King George III with the people as the supreme sovereign.  Talk of independence was in the air as the Revolutionary...

Mayfair is one of London’s most extravagantly well-heeled districts and has a long and fascinating history. Its name derives from a boisterous local fair held annually between 1686-1764, and it became a wealthy and fashionable part of London’s West End after redevelopment by the Grosvenor family in the 18th century. Mayfair encompasses approximately one square mile of prime London real estate and includes fine Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian residential streets, churches, and garden squares. Today, this City of Westminster district is world famous for high-end shopping and...

The Long Telegram of February 22, 1946, by the deputy to the United States Ambassador in the Soviet Union George Kennan, was a conceptual turning point in the history of the Cold War. Written by a professional diplomat, it wielded a direct influence on the shaping of U.S. policy towards the Soviet Union. The Long Telegram served as a long-lasting intellectual foundation of U.S. policy towards the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War. A conceptual tour de force, Kennan’s Long Telegram was aimed at clarifying the objectives of the Soviet Union. It did so by combining historical analysis...

In the early morning hours of April 17, 1961, the 2506 Brigade entered the Bay of Pigs on the southern, swampy, mosquito-infested coast of Las Villas province, and la batalla de Girón (that is, the battle of Playa Girón) commenced in earnest. I will not recount the details of the military operation except to say that the Cuban exiles fought ferociously for three days until they literally ran out of ammunition because supplies and armaments could not be delivered. Suffice to say that since air support was not provided to the landing force, the invasion force was...

In the early morning hours of April 17, 1961, the 2506 Brigade entered the Bay of Pigs on the southern, swampy, mosquito-infested coast of Las Villas province, and la batalla de Girón (that is, the battle of Playa Girón) commenced in earnest. I will not recount the details of the military operation except to say that the Cuban exiles fought ferociously for three days until they literally ran out of ammunition because supplies and armaments could not be delivered. Suffice to say that since air support was not provided to the landing force, the invasion force was...

On the 65th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs tragedy, we must remember what occurred to avoid an incident like it ever happening again.  From April through October 1961, hundreds of executions took place in those fortress-prisons, and prisoners complained they could not sleep because of the shots heard day and night. Antonino Díaz Pou, a leader of one of the infiltration teams sent in advance of the invasion force, the 2506 Brigade; underground leader Raimundo E. López, who resisted arrest; and students, such as Virgilio Campanería, Alberto Tapia, Rogelio...

Currently pending for decision before the United States Supreme Court is the case of Trump v. Barbara which presents the question of who is a United States citizen. The Fourteenth Amendment states that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” The issue in this case involves the status of the parents of a child born in the United States when the parents are not United States citizens. Does the Fourteenth Amendment require that at least one parent...

Writing about 100 A.D. in his Histories, the Roman historian Tacitus describes the origin of the Jews in Palestine. Tacitus was focused on the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the final act in Rome's war to end the Jewish revolt that had begun four years earlier. But he digresses to provide a brief history of the Jews. Tacitus' description of the Jews is hostile. It's also unreliable, which is unusual for Tacitus. It's unreliable because Tacitus simply repeats what other sources say about the Jews, and these sources are unreliable because they have no first-hand knowledge. Tacitus...

In February 2003, the planning for Operation Iraqi Freedom felt like a math problem that could be solved with a discrete solution. Maps. Timelines. Phase lines. Routes. Bridges. Objectives. The maps were clean, the intent was sharp, and the plan – at least in our minds – had an end state you could point to with a pencil. While not stated explicitly, many of us felt it was implied: secure Saddam International Airport, codenamed Objective Lions, and we could declare victory.   We were in Kuwait with the 3rd Infantry Division, rehearsing an invasion that many believed...

Ninety years ago this month, German troops marched into the demilitarized Rhineland area in violation of the Versailles Treaty of 1919.  Some historians and international relations experts, like Henry Kissinger, contend that the Rhineland Crisis of March 1936 was a turning point in history. Had Britain and France reacted forcefully against the entry of German troops into the demilitarized Rhineland, history might have evolved differently. Nazi Germany may have been deterred from further aggressive moves. After all, it was none other than Adolf Hitler, Germany’s leader, who assuaged...

By February 1778, the Continental Army had already endured several months of a harsh, cold winter at Valley Forge.      Though not the coldest conditions the Americans would suffer – that would come during the Morristown encampment several years later – the stakes were no less severe. After a series of crushing defeats, the British Army had decisively driven Gen. George Washington and his ragged army from New York across the Hudson River. The port city would remain Loyalist for the war’s duration until November...

A few days ago, the President closed the longest state of the union on record with a moment of historical introspection. Referencing the two centenarians he featured in the address, Trump pointed out that, from the signers of the Declaration to today, the country is only as old as three lengthy lifespans. His speech contained a number of historical references, but the most important was his recurring tie-in to the 250-year anniversary of American independence. Trump was right that two and a half centuries is a brief span in the annals of world history, a fact which should encourage us with...

The payroll imbalance between the Dodgers and everyone else, and between big- and small-market franchises, is setting up an owner-union impasse that might kill the 2027 baseball season. Owners are demanding a salary cap; the players union won’t budge. But MLB has another imbalance problem, a generational offensive-defense crisis. In 2022, Major League Baseball instituted the most far-reaching rules changes in well over a century – the pitch clock, defensive-shift ban, pickoff limits, enlarged (“pizza box”) bases, extra-inning “ghost runners.” The game had...

The French and Indian War ended with the 1763 Treaty of Paris, with Britain receiving all French and Spanish-claimed territories between the Mississippi River and the British-American Colonies. Afterwards, the British instilled the Proclamation Line of 1763, a boundary along the Appalachian Mountains to prevent Colonists from expanding westward into Native lands. Instead, many Colonists migrated into Native lands, including veterans who were promised frontier land grants for their service before the Proclamation Line was announced. Consequently,...

President’s Day is often treated as a generic celebration of presidents – or, more commonly, as a convenient sales event marking the approach of spring. The modern observance, falling between the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, has become a combined civic ritual that tends to flatten the distinct stature of each. In that reduction, something essential has been lost. The day was not created to promote consumption or to blur distinct lives into an amorphous narrative. Nor was it meant to compress the memory of the presidency itself into a single interchangeable...

The cult of personality: a quippy term to describe how a strongman cultivates his followers to see him as powerful, knowledgeable, and protective. Such rulers and their techniques are as old as recorded history – among the oldest of is Ramses II, who ruled as the pharaoh of Egypt for 66 years, 1279-1213 B.C. Ramses' rule as pharaoh was marked by military campaigns along Egypt's borders. His earliest success was to defeat pirates that had been attacking ships along Egypt's Mediterranean coast. Later in his rule, he conducted successful military campaigns to control Egypt's southern and...

Before the founding of Israel, the Galilee, stretching from the Litani River in the North to the Jezreel Valley in the South, was a quiet region split between Mandatory Palestine and Lebanon. Largely populated by a mix of Jews, Shias, and Sunnis, the region was far away from administrative centers and life was shaped by kinship and survival.  Today, the Galilee is split between a Jewish Israel and Shia South Lebanon, and has been subject to sporadic conflicts between the State of Israel and Shia Islamist Hezbollah since the 1980s. Spurred by the Khomeinist ideology of the Iranian regime,...