Eisenhower’s farewell address

I thought this was important to save here. From Legal History Blog and Balkinization:

The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Freedom Just Around the Corner

Around Christmas time, I finished reading Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History, 1585-1828 by Walter A. McDougall. One might say that I should not be reading such stuff that is off-topic as regards my thesis. But it was a good and enlightening read, and inspiring for its wit, naration and mix of small stories and broad but convincing brush-strokes.

A big thank-you note then goes to Lars since he gave me the book a while back, and it is only now that I actually got around to reading it.