While most histories of the Civil War naturally focus on the drama in America, Don H. Doyle’s “The Cause of All Nations” explains how the conflict fits into broader world history and how events abroad affected the war.

What is emerging is a return of three ancient regional power centers, would-be Persian and Turkish hegemons wishing to once more dominate in the domain of their past empires. In the middle is an Arab and Jewish coalition, anxious not to fall prey to their old masters.

Goldman responds to commentators who believe that Americans must return to some overarching identity and purpose. He argues that this task is difficult when the conditions that allowed previous unity no longer exist. Moreover, nationalists do not reasonably explain programs that could reignite a meaningful shared identity.

Given the Turkish government’s particularly troubling conduct in 2020, Secretary of State Antony Blinken should deliver an honest message about the alarming trajectory of religious freedoms in Turkey.

Memorial Day should remind us of a debt that we, as citizens, owe to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, and it is a call to action to appropriately honor those who have served in the armed forces.

This racism and mockery have certainly dented China’s image and drained its already meager soft power while the CCP tries to forge its soft power narrative of a “Community of Common Destiny for Humankind.” Such behavior will hurt its rise on the world stage.

Seventy-five years ago, the Samuel Goldwyn masterpiece “The Best Years of Our Lives” premiered to universal critical and popular acclaim. Reviewing the film now, two overarching contrasts between past and present are clear.

“A Christian knows, or ought to know, that an adequate Christian political ethic is not established merely by conceiving the most ideal possible solution for a political problem. He must, in all humility, deal with the realities of human nature, as well as the ideal possibilities.”

Published in Christianity and Crisis 75 years ago on March 18, 1946, the speech offers the future Secretary of State Dulles’ insights and recommendations for how the United States should utilize the newly established United Nations. Readers today can learn from how the great statesman saw the world as it dragged itself out of the ruins of a total war.