Posts in History
The ghastly march of progress

My latest for The Rebel: March 17 is the sombre anniversary of the beginning of operations at Belzec in 1942. Unlike "concentation camps" where at least some inmates were gradually worked to death instead of swiftly exterminated, pure "extermination camps" like Belzec, Sobibor and others had almost no survivors to tell the world what happened there. But we must remember their names, to remind us that evil is not some relic of our savage past but has accompanied us throughout our material progress because it is lodged always in the human heart. https://youtu.be/bKvrRU1hvGs

History, PodcastJohn Robson
Talking Constitution to Canadians for Language Fairness

This weekend is the fifth annual St. Patrick's Day brunch organized by Canadians for Language Fairness in Vars, Ontario. I will be making a presentation about our project. Please come say hello if you can.

I also wanted to add a note about the fundraising, because some of our existing backers have expressed concerns about the pace of the fundraising campaign.

From our point of view the campaign is going very well. This one is a bit different than our previous two campaigns in that a great deal of the fundraising is happening offline. Another key difference is that this campaign, contrary to the other two, is not an "all-or-nothing" campaign. Even if we don't quite reach our $85,000 goal we will produce the documentary and start the campaign to fix the constitution, in good part because we are able to combine this production with that of our other project, A Right to Arms, and save tons of money on travel expenses. And finally, another big difference between this project and our previous ones is that we will continue to raise money for it once the documentary is produced, because we intend to generate public support for our revised constitution so that we are ready to push for it should certain prime ministers manage to bungle into a constitutional crisis.

In short, we are very pleased with how this project is going.

Constitution, History, SpeechesJohn Robson
Egadi, a Roman victory

In my latest piece for The Rebel I argue that Rome’s long-ago victory at the Battle of the Egadi Islands, ending the First Punic War on March 10, 241 BC, was surprisingly important to the rise of liberty under law, Christianity, and the whole of Western civilization. https://youtu.be/CM5G0B8QdCA

History, PodcastJohn Robson
With respect

Conrad Black does me the honour of responding to my column on Donald Trump with a splendid example of polemics done right. His piece pulls no punches but throws them all above the waist. As Chesterton says “People generally quarrel because they cannot argue” and Conrad Black can certainly argue. I still respectfully disagree. When he says “Foreigners like Robson should remember that Americans, unlike most nationalities, are not accustomed to their government being incompetent and embarrassing” I respond that “People with Ph.Ds in American history like Robson remember that Americans are thoroughly accustomed to their government being incompetent and embarrassing, under presidents from John Tyler to Andrew Johnson to Warren Harding.” Remember Henry Adams’s quip in The Education of Henry Adams that “The progress of Evolution from President Washington to President Grant, was alone evidence enough to upset Darwin.” What distinguishes Americans is their commendable determination to keep government small because they understand that it is usually incompetent and often sinister.

Regrettably Donald Trump does not share this understanding. Indeed, he himself would be both incompetent and sinister in office. That is why I continue to maintain that while he taps into legitimate anger, he does so in ways that are profoundly illegitimate.

Columns, History, National Post, United StatesJohn Robson