Monthly Archives: March 2022

How I Read History

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I’m going to take a break from writing about history, and instead… write about history. Or more accurately, write about how I read history. I’m often asked how I select what to read. There are millions and millions of history books out there, how do you weed through the junk and get to the good stuff? How do you know if what you’re reading is fact, opinion, propaganda or outright lies? I have a few rules to abide by. As with most rules, they are not ironclad, but if you follow these, you’ll be off to a good start. Without further ado, James Salerno’s rules for reading history:

figuring out what to read can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be
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No Solutions, Only Trade-Offs – Ukraine Edition

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The great Thomas Sowell often notes that when looking to solve problems, there are no perfect solutions, only trade-offs. You weigh the cost of your various options and look for the one that creates the fewest additional problems. You look for the best trade-off. Make your concessions based on three factors – compared to what, at what cost, and based on what evidence? Nowhere does this practice come into play more than in foreign policy. Today we’re going to look at the ongoing situation in Ukraine, and weigh the options based on historic parallels.

Crisis in Ukraine
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A Crisis of Confidence in the U.S. Dollar

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Economic uncertainty hangs in the air. Inflation is rising, supply chains are disrupted, and global conflict only compounds those problems. I’m not going to talk about the ongoing crisis in Ukraine as that is beyond the scope of this post. But the fallout of Putin’s actions, and the U.S. response, may set an interesting chain of events into play that could reshape the world.

Infinite money printing
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Book Review: The Jazz Age President – Defending Warren G. Harding

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A book reexamining the Warren Harding presidency? Sign me up! Harding is always at the bottom of presidential rankings, but is that earned? Published in 2022, author Ryan S. Walters tackles rehabilitating the 29th presidents’ reputation. Just attempting to do this is heresy according to mainstream historians. Michael Beschloss told the New York Times, “If you had to reach for a great revisionist mountain to climb, that would be it.” Sounds like Walters has an uphill battle. Does he succeed in his goal?

The Jazz Age President – Defending Warren G. Harding
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Casting Doubt on the “Last Testament of Lenin” Myth

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There is a common view amongst today’s Marxists and academic class that the terrors under Stalin were somehow a bastardization of Vladimir Lenin’s true intentions. The mass murders that occurred under Stalin’s U.S.S.R. occurred because he perverted Lenin’s idea of a Marxist utopia. I don’t believe that there is any evidence to back these claims. Common historical consensus states that Lenin wrote a “Last Testament of Lenin” before his death, warning others of the threat that “the mass murderer” Stalin posed to communism. I think the timeline shows that this is false. Let’s take a look.

Lenin and Stalin.
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