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February 8, 2019|Ken Burns, Peter Jackson, World War I

Peter Jackson’s World War I Masterpiece

by Lauren Weiner|

“They Shall Not Grow Old,” a labor of love by the director of “Lord of the Rings,” brings the soldiers who fought on the Western Front back to life.

November 15, 2017|Ken Burns, South Vietnam, Vietnam

Lessons from a Tragedy

by William Anthony Hay|

Soldiers on a search and destroy operation near Qui Nhon in central Vietnam, January 17, 1967. Bettmann/Getty Images

The lessons of Vietnam long ago became a cliché in American political debate.  It provided a shorthand for mistakes to avoid or overcome.  Successfully driving Saddam Hussein from Kuwait in 1991, at minimal cost in lives and money, appeared to lift the United States from the shadow of Vietnam. After the disappointed hopes of more recent Middle Eastern conflicts, however, the shadow returned.  Ken Burns’ recent documentary series, The Vietnam War, revives the debate over what lessons that war provides.  Rather than the usual approach of drawing analogies that show what policies to adopt or avoid, learning from Vietnam involves…

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October 6, 2017|Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, Vietnam War

Burns and Novick on Vietnam: A Neutral Film, or a Rifle Butt to the Heart?

by George J. Veith|

When it comes to the Vietnam War, we face almost the same situation that we do with physics: there’s really no “grand unified theory” among either scholars or the public. The staggering complexity of that conflict resists any conclusive definition of what, precisely, it was about.

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September 20, 2017|Cold War, communism, Ken Burns, Vietnam War

Ken Burns’ Vietnam

by William Anthony Hay|

Journalists often claim to write the first draft of history, but that statement raises the question when a story turns from current events into history.  The Vietnam War now stands closer to World War II than 2017.  A formative experience for the baby boom generation, those who came of age after 1990 see Vietnam as an episode in history.  Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns captures the immediacy of the conflict in the ten episode series The Vietnam War airing on PBS.  The series also raises larger questions about American foreign policy that resonate today.

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Book Reviews

A Mirror of the 20th-Century Congress

by Joseph Postell

Wright undermined the very basis of his local popularity—the decentralized nature of the House—by supporting reforms that gave power to the party leaders.

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The Graces of Flannery O'Connor

by Henry T. Edmondson III

O'Connor's correspondence is a goldmine of piercing insight and startling reflections on everything from literature to philosophy to raising peacocks.

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Liberty Classics

Rereading Politica in the Post-Liberal Moment

by Glenn A. Moots

Althusius offers a rich constitutionalism that empowers persons to thrive alongside one another in deliberate communities.

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James Fenimore Cooper and the American Experiment

by Melissa Matthes

In The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper defended democracy against both mob rule and majority tyranny.

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Podcasts

Stuck With Decadence

A discussion with Ross Douthat

Ross Douthat discusses with Richard Reinsch his new book The Decadent Society.

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Can the Postmodern Natural Law Remedy Our Failing Humanism?

A discussion with Graham McAleer

Graham McAleer discusses how postmodern natural law can help us think more coherently about human beings and our actions.

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Did the Civil Rights Constitution Distort American Politics?

A discussion with Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell discusses his new book, The Age of Entitlement.

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America, Land of Deformed Institutions

A discussion with Yuval Levin

Yuval Levin pinpoints that American alienation and anger emerges from our weak political, social, and religious institutions.

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About

Law & Liberty’s focus is on the classical liberal tradition of law and political thought and how it shapes a society of free and responsible persons. This site brings together serious debate, commentary, essays, book reviews, interviews, and educational material in a commitment to the first principles of law in a free society. Law & Liberty considers a range of foundational and contemporary legal issues, legal philosophy, and pedagogy.

The opinions expressed on Law & Liberty are solely those of the contributors to the site and do not reflect the opinions of Liberty Fund.
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