Free Republic

Dear History Professor,It was wholly a pleasure to get your thoughtful letter, and read your response to my comparing the bitter remnants of the old Confederacy and the new terrorists of the Arab world. You seem to have thought this thing through. Yes, both old guards, Arab and Southern, represent a reaction against modernity and all its works — and both are heirs of a once great civilization that brought on its own ruin. Neither can come to terms with its own history. ("Forget, Hell!") As you note, "Both are/were led by cultured elites representing traditional, agrarian societies in which...