ATHLETICISM

A recent (re)post from the excellent Art of Manliness covered The Insanely Difficult Standards of Histories Hardest P.E. Program. Brett is not typically prone to hyperbole but compared with the current physical education provided students – which is a travesty! – the observation is correct. But he has written about the Spartans, so he knowsContinue reading “ATHLETICISM”

Mining the Moon Redux

In Mining the Moon, I connected the Trump administration’s lunar-mining policy [1] to The Expanse and to Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis – the promise of new worlds opened by the Ring Gates. Would the writers treat these planets as another American frontier, a crucible for expansion and exploitation? The first three episodes of SeasonContinue reading “Mining the Moon Redux”

HOPLITES and PHYSICAL LIMITATIONS

I have just finished Victor Hanson’s The Western Way of War (1989). It provides a visceral depiction of what it was like to be a hoplite. It is a very unromantic portrayal that emphasizes the communal aspects of ancient warfare; the necessity of group action where doing your role in the phalanx was far moreContinue reading “HOPLITES and PHYSICAL LIMITATIONS”