Category: World War I

John Robson: Gap Between ‘Social Justice Warrior’ and ‘Warrior’ Sums Up Canadian Military’s Recruiting Crisis

Commentary It doesn’t seem so long ago that you could say “social justice” bears the same relationship to “justice” as “social worker” does to “worker,” and warn that integrating female soldiers into front-line combat would devastate military effectiveness. Nowadays such things are taboo. But the Canadian military’s recruiting crisis suggests a lingering gap between “social…


Remembering Kiffin Rockwell, the Courageous Aviator Who Shot Down America’s First Enemy Plane in WWI

On September 23, 1916, the young American pilot flying a French Nieuport 17 above Verdun spotted a German two-seater Aviatik and raced, as he so often had, to engage the enemy in combat. As he dove from 10,000 feet on the German aircraft, an explosive bullet fired by the Aviatik’s tail gunner tore into his…


John Robson: Inflation, High Gas Prices Should Have Been Predictable

Commentary British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan apparently once told a journalist the hardest thing about politics was “Events, my dear boy, events.” They have a way of happening, and surprising you. But sometimes, as my old music teacher used to say in his rare moments of lucidity, “It’s not the instrument, it’s you.” Sometimes the…


Book Review: ‘The Approaching Storm: Roosevelt, Wilson, Addams, and Their Clash Over America’s Future’

World War I continues to be studied on the merits of how it changed the global landscape: geographically, religiously, and economically. Not to mention how the peace that followed led to the most devastating war the world had ever witnessed, only 20 years after the most devastating war the world had ever witnessed. These studies…


The Fallout From the Eclipse of US Hegemony

Commentary “America at this moment stands at the summit of the world.”—Winston Churchill, 1950 At the end of World War II, the United States was far and away the world’s predominant economic and military power. America in 1950 was nothing less than an industrial colossus. According to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, the…


Our World Needs Another Christmas Truce

Commentary By Christmas Day 1914, five months after the outbreak of the Great War, trenches filled with British, Canadian, French, and German troops faced each other on a deadly European battlefront. On that sacred occasion, a remarkable event occurred. For a brief time, the thunder of gunfire and exploding artillery was interrupted by the sound…


Michigan Family Find WWI-Era Artillery Shell Filled With Antique Coins While Cleaning House

A family in Michigan was cleaning house when they came across an explosive-seeming find last month, discovering a World War I ammunition shell filled with an unexpected treasure. Inside their abode, they somehow dredged up an antiquated artillery round from a bygone era. Worried that the shell was still live, they contacted the police in…


The Last Post Still Sounds, Lest We Forget

Commentary At 8:00 every night, the Last Post sounds at the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres, Belgium, and has without interruption since July 2, 1928. Except during the German occupation. But as soon as it ended in 1944, the ceremony resumed. Sooner, actually. On Sept. 6, 1944, Polish forces liberated that monument…


How the End of World War I Informed the End of World War II

Commentary When World War I came to an end, Germany was humiliated by the Treaty of Versailles, yet boasted that it had not been conquered, or even invaded. Externally, the treaty would require that the blame fall to it for starting the war; internally, it would gloat in the triumph of not suffering the cataclysmic fates…


‘Oblivion or Glory: 1921 and the Making of Winston Churchill’

As 1920 ended, Winston Churchill seemed headed for obscurity. The British failure at Gallipoli brought his political career to collapse in 1916. While partially restored before the Great War ended, he was stalemated in a dead-end cabinet position as 1921 opened. His judgment was widely questioned. He was experiencing financial difficulties. When 1921 ended, everything…