Free Republic

Date of the inversion David Warren, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Sunday, April 01, 2007 The question, at what precise moment did Western Civilization capsize, continues to interest me. (It is still floating, but upside down in the water.) I've brought it up before. Once, for instance, I called attention to a fine book by the historian John Lukacs, A Thread of Years, in which, through a series of anecdotes, one for each year from 1901 to 1969, he reviews the decline, fall and final extinction of "the idea of a gentleman." Note the terminal year. For long I've mentioned...