As peace remains elusive in Ukraine, it’s worth reflecting on a time when the region was similarly witness to carnage—but with the Russians fighting the British, French, Turks, and… Sardinians? Gary Saul Morson returns to the Weekend Beacon with a review of Gregory Carleton’s Crimean Quagmire: Tolstoy, Russell and the Birth of Modern Warfare. “In
Except for professional historians, I know no one familiar with the Crimean War, which pitted Russia against Britain, France, Turkey, and Sardinia from 1853-1856. To be sure, a few people recall that during this war Florence Nightingale introduced modern nursing, and Tennyson wrote his thrilling poem about the charge of the Light Brigade. Otherwise, this
Few American writers are as intriguing as Edgar Allan Poe. The author of stories that are still shockingly violent, Poe himself was something of a Jekyll and Hyde—sensitive and kind when sober, but manic and violent when drunk—who lived much of his life in debt after being raised by one of Richmond’s richest families. Some
REVIEW: ‘Like Silicon From Clay: What Ancient Jewish Wisdom Can Teach Us About AI’ by Michael M. Rosen March 30, 2025 Reading the latest news about the future of artificial intelligence is like experiencing whiplash. Predictions run from the promise of AI to transform the economy to its existential threat to humanity. It’s such a
That escalated quickly: Katrina Armstrong is out as president of Columbia University just seven months into the job, the school announced Friday night. Her replacement is Claire Shipman, the Columbia board member and longtime ABC journo who is married to former Obama press secretary Jay Carney. “The news comes just weeks into Columbia’s standoff with
‘My background is rooted in agriculture, small business and helping women entrepreneurs,’ Cooke says Wisconsin House candidate Rebecca Cooke (X) A Democrat running for Congress in Wisconsin, Rebecca Cooke, prides herself on lacking “a career background in politics.” But the twice-failed candidate served on a key panel for a D.C.-based dark money group disguised as
The news that senior members of the Trump administration’s foreign policy team inadvertently invited a critical journalist onto a group chat that discussed the Yemen bombing campaign has roiled Washington. After two months of disruption, the Beltway is settling into its first classic scandal of this presidential term. But while Americans argue about classification standards