History

History articles feature analysis of historical context in relation to censorship, policy, technology, media, economics, and social life.

All Brownstone Institute articles on the topic of history are translated into multiple languages.

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We Must Save Ourselves from the Public Health Professionals

We Must Save Ourselves from the Public Health Professionals

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We need legislators, and the public, to reclaim public health ethics and to return to credible concepts of health and well-being – as the WHO once did – “physical, mental and social.” This is what was intended when previous generations fought to overthrow dictators, striving for equality and for the rights of individuals over those who would control them. History tells us that public health professions tend to follow self-interest, taking the side of those who would be dictators. If our democracies, freedom, and health are to survive, we must accept reality and address this as a basic issue of individual freedom and good governance for which we are all responsible. There is too much at stake to leave this to self-interested corporatists and the notorious enforcers they control.

We Must Save Ourselves from the Public Health Professionals Read Journal Article

Living Everywhere in a Carceral Surveillance State

Living Everywhere in a Carceral Surveillance State

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If you live in a Chinese city, or even in London, you are probably so used to surveillance cameras all around you – on lamp posts, the corners of buildings, and so on – that you would hardly bat an eyelid. Yet what contemporary city-denizens take for granted was not always the case, and most people would be surprised to know that surveillance has a long history, and was linked to modes of punishment from early on. 

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The Historian of Decline: Ludwig von Mises’s Relevance Today

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The mistake we made was in believing that there is logic to history. There isn’t. There is only the march of good ideas and bad, and the forever competition between the two. And this is a central message of Mises’s 1954 overlooked masterwork Theory and History. Here he offers a devastating rebuttal to determinism of all sorts, whether from old liberals or Hegel or Fukuyama. 

The Historian of Decline: Ludwig von Mises’s Relevance Today Read Journal Article

Michael Gove Supported Lockdowns Due to Information from "Friends Outside Government"

Michael Gove Supported Lockdowns Due to Information from “Friends Outside Government”

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The idea that behind the scenes intelligence sources were pushing warnings that the virus was a deadly manmade biological agent warranting an extreme response has much to commend it as an explanation, the more so as time has gone on. Michael Gove’s comments to the inquiry today have just added to this.

Michael Gove Supported Lockdowns Due to Information from “Friends Outside Government” Read Journal Article

In Praise of Semantic Warfare

In Praise of Semantic Warfare

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Could it be that most of us, in fact, are pre-programmed to surrender our agency at the first sign of a canceling putdown or threat of ostracism, however absurd, emanating from someone presented to us as being authoritative, even when that “authoritative” figure issuing the “conspiracy theorist” or “disinformation” fatwa these days is often nothing more a 26-year-old twit with an overly-expensive diploma working in a Silicon Valley cubicle or a Brooklyn coffee shop? 

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Lessons Learned from the West African Slave Trade

Forgive but Never Forget: Lessons from the West African Slave Trade

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West Africans endured slavery for 400 years, when 15 million human beings were forcibly captured and sold into bondage. During this era, the world’s major secular and sectarian institutions regarded slaves as no better than animals, but modern West Africans look to the future, adopting a philosophy of forgiving but never forgetting.

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If He Was Alive Today, Socrates Would be Banned

If He Were Alive Today, Socrates Would be Banned

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It recently occurred to me that if Socrates was alive today, he would be censored, de-platformed, smeared, cancelled and labeled a grave threat to society. In short, he would be charged with spreading disinformation and would no doubt be Target No. 1 of the massive Censorship Industrial Complex.

If He Were Alive Today, Socrates Would be Banned Read Journal Article

Conflicts of Interest in Science: History of Influence, Scandal, and Denial

Conflicts of Interest in Science: History of Influence, Scandal, and Denial

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As far back as 2000, experts questioned the ability of academic institutions to regulate financial conflicts of interests when they were so reliant on billions of dollars annually from industry. University leaders avoid discussing the imperative to regulate financial conflicts because they fear losing revenue. 

Conflicts of Interest in Science: History of Influence, Scandal, and Denial Read Journal Article