What Fire Teaches About What Survives

What Fire Teaches About What Survives

London, September 1940The German bombing has been continuous since September 7th. Last night the fires in the East End were visible from here, orange against low clouds, the kind of light that makes the city look like something from the industrial paintings that Dore...
Germany, 1636: Moving Through It

Germany, 1636: Moving Through It

The Rhineland, 1636The Thirty Years War had been running for eighteen years by the time I was moving through the Rhineland in the winter of 1636. A third of the German population was dead or had fled or was in the process of dying. I have seen other wars. This one had...
Five Centuries of the Same War

Five Centuries of the Same War

Various, 1096 to presentI want to list some of what I have witnessed, briefly, because the list is the argument.I was not present for the First Crusade but I have spoken with scholars who documented it. I was present for the later ones, at various distances. I watched...
The Double Edge

The Double Edge

Present Day, May 2026Every technology I have watched arrive has been a double edge, and it has taken me some time to arrive at a settled view about what this means and what the appropriate response to it is.The printing press. The steam engine. The telegraph. The...
The Geometry of Violence

The Geometry of Violence

Various, consolidatedI want to say something specific about war, because I have been in enough of them to have a basis for the observation that is not theoretical.The reasons given for wars change. The configuration of the wars does not change as much as the changing...