Recent content by Rust

This is some really basic level stuff, but I'll bother to break it down for you. Saying "humans are animals" is not offensive because it is a correct identification without content. However, the form you did it in was to posit a continuity between "man" and "beast" on which the Romans were low...

I've got to say having followed the early history of the Reformation, at least, while there was some flickering of priorities and factionalism, religion was very, very important to the wars and it was perceived as being very important to the wars. The Reformation certainly served the political...

It's weird to have to say this, but Islam doesn't "have" to do anything to stop fighting over its religious differences except come to the conclusion that they shouldn't. I'm not interested in recreating the European religious course in the Middle East, for one thing I think the fall of...

I just think you're trying to render the discontinuity between the Christian Theologians and the Greek Platonists/Aristotelians much larger than it is. Christianity asserted itself during its rise as a philosophy, not a cultic religion, as did then-contemporary Judaism. Christianity and...

Yeah, I don't think it is the case that the Vatican archive hasn't been fully explored and catalogued. They absolutely do care, the Vatican librarians are nerds. Unless you're saying, "The Church doesn't know every document in its possession" which does seem to be largely true, but mostly...

The Greenback Party's Moment in the Sun Monopoly Capital in A Yeoman Republic The Long Depression, as it is customarily known, was nearly a fatal blow to the Republican Party. Even in the occupied states of the South, where Blaine and the Union army were expending substantial political capital...

Blaine’s Solutions To the Nation’s Troubles Excerpt from American Dominion: The United States in the Western Hemisphere Blaine was a convicted Republican, rightfully furious at the illegitimate coup attempts by southern redeemers and concerned with the welfare of freedmen in the South. But he...

The Unpopular Election of James G. Blaine Excerpt from As The Flower of the Grass: The Post-Bellum James G. Blaine was a talented politician and his nomination to the Presidency of the United States was a foregone conclusion when he arrived to the convention.[1] The Republican Party had...

If the Democrats were the drys and the Republican the wets, it seems likely to me that Prohibition would have survived to the present day. Modern Indian prohibitions are functionally washes in crime terms and the historical American one’s effects on crime are debated in the literature. The...

This was really great. I enjoyed it a lot, it credibly sold most of the events in the story.

1) Constantinianism. When the Church is associated with the state, it will inevitably become a prop of some bad actor. This will ruin its popularity. 2) Cosmopolitanism. Diverse experiences tend to rub against exclusivist religions. It also increases openness to foreign ideas, increasing...

Has there been a major economic collapse in the US yet? I'm drawing a blank, but thirty years without a recession feels like a bit much.

So I finished reading this. Firstly, all super interesting. Secondly, looks like I'm still a Democrat.

No. The United States is substantially more rural and Canada substantially more urban, there's just no way to make the US more liberal socially than Canada. If you go far enough back and push hard enough, you could make the US substantially more economically liberal and substantially less...

I'd contend that Muhammed led a monotheistic revival movement that initially co-opted Christians and Jews, along with the monotheistic-trending positions of the formerly polytheistic arabs. Then, over the course of time, the revival movement hardened into its own, separate sect, driven by both...