Why Iran’s anger at America is rational — and why that is not the same as innocence I see two common frameworks weaving their way through Western media these days, and I’d like to correct them both at once, as… Read More ›
history
The Fall of Ming (明)
The end of Ming (明) (1368-1644) was about eight weeks of events that — literally — ended an empire. Note: Wu Sangui did not intend to give China to the Qing. He made a desperate tactical alliance against Li Zicheng… Read More ›
Navigating the End of the Rules-Based Order
May 2026.1 I. Context: The End of the Inter-Cold War Period The roughly three-decade interval following the collapse of the Soviet Union, during which China and Russia turned inward toward domestic consolidation and the United States broadly upheld the post-1945… Read More ›
Colonialism and the Roots of the Modern Economy
Nobody walks away from the slave trade with their dignity intact. If colonialism is the second-worst thing humans have ever done to one another, the Atlantic trade has a strong claim on first place — and the two are less… Read More ›
East Asia in English: From FEER to Today
Part 1: Origins and the Davies era (1946–1989) The Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) was founded in Hong Kong in 1946 with seed capital from the Kadoorie family, Jardines, and HSBC by Eric Halpern, a Viennese Jewish émigré who had… Read More ›
March 20: A Pivotal Day for American Independence
The most important day in US history is March 20. On March 20, 1778, Benjamin Franklin met King Louis XVI at the Palace of Versailles. It was the pivotal diplomatic event of the American Revolution (1765-1783), and Franklin played a… Read More ›
Ghosts of Christmases Past
The City College of New York has sat there in Hamilton Heights since 1847, before the US Civil War. In the late 1930s, its canteen was filled with poor immigrant kids, all new to the New World and many of… Read More ›
Thank you, France
This Thursday is the Fourth of July. Every Fourth of July, I say a little prayer of thanks to France. France bought from the fledgling U.S. its first-ever tranche of federal bonds, thereby giving Washington enough cash to buy guns…. Read More ›
O Captain! My Captain!
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the… Read More ›
On Our Birthday—America as Idea
The United States is a nation consciously conceived, not one that evolved slowly out of an ancient past. It was a planned idea of democracy, of liberty of conscience and pursuit of happiness. It was the promise of equality of… Read More ›
Gregory's Writings 