by Matthew Friedman | Jul 5, 2019 | Commentary, Politics
We all heard it. In his 4th of July speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, looking out over the reflecting pool in the National Mall, the 45th president of the United States praised the brave patriots of the Continental Army who “took over the airports” from...
by Matthew Friedman | Jul 3, 2019 | Features, News Analysis
The voices on the tape are clear, but they betray a sense of anticipation and even excitement. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, the “whiz kid” technocrat recruited to the cabinet from the Ford Motor Co. three years earlier, speaks in precise, clipped tones....
by Matthew Friedman | Jun 19, 2019 | Commentary, Politics
I don’t really know what to say to Rep. Liz Cheney. She lashed out yesterday after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez commented that the American government was operating “concentration camps on the southern border of the United States for immigrants, where they are being...
by Matthew Friedman | Jun 17, 2019 | Essays, Reviews, Television
Joseph Heller’s tragicomic novel Catch-22 ends on a strangely hopeful note. Having just learned that his comrade Orr, missing in action after crashing his B-25 Mitchell bomber in the Mediterranean, successfully rowed to Sweden in a life-raft, Captain Yossarian runs....
by Matthew Friedman | Jun 11, 2019 | Essays, History
I. Prologue They stood on the stage of the Great Hall at the Cooper Union in New York City in the spring of 2006, where in 1860 Abraham Lincoln had publicly committed himself to the destruction of slavery. “Let us have faith that right makes might,” the future...
