The Wages of Appeasement explores the reasons why a powerful state gives in to aggressors. It tells the story of three historical examples of appeasement: the Greek city-states of the fourth century B.C., which lost their freedom to Philip II of Macedon; England’s failure to stop Germany’s aggression in the 1920s and 1930s, which resulted [...]

Once a colossus dominating the globe, Europe today is a doddering convalescent. Sluggish economic growth, high unemployment, an addiction to expensive social welfare entitlements, a dwindling birth-rate among native Europeans, and most important, an increasing Islamic immigrant population chronically underemployed yet demographically prolific­­––all point to a future in which Europe will be transformed beyond recognition, [...]

On a hot July dawn in 1853, a gunfight took place on the western edge of the San Joaquin Valley, midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. When the smoke cleared, Joaquin Murieta, one of the most notorious bandits of the Gold Rush lay dead. Soon his severed head was traveling around the new state [...]