Articles by John Steele Gordon
- The Uses of Scandal Tuesday, May 21, 2013
- One of the greatest uses of scandal is to vividly demonstrate what new laws are needed and to create the political conditions to get them enacted.
- Reforming the Law Tuesday, March 19, 2013
- Is it possible for the legal profession to reform itself?
- Congratulations! You Have Arrived at the Greatest City on Earth Friday, February 8, 2013
- I have never failed to be moved by Grand Central’s incomparable (and irreplaceable) architectural grandeur.
- The Personal Income Tax at 100 Sunday, February 3, 2013
- Few areas of American public life are more in need of thorough reform — and, alas, more difficult to change — than the tax system.
- Voyager I at the Heliopause Friday, January 18, 2013
- An extension of human ingenuity will soon reach the farthest limit of the sun’s empire. Beyond is true interstellar space.
- The Politically Correct Calendar Monday, December 24, 2012
- Among the more irritating manifestations of political correctness, at least to this historian, is the attempt to replace the terms AD and BC with CE and BCE.
- Debt and the Constitution Thursday, December 13, 2012
- Congress and Congress alone is granted the power ‘to borrow money on the credit of the United States.’ Can Congress delegate that power to the president and ...
- The Scariest Day of My Life Monday, October 22, 2012
- ‘It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet ...
- Churchill and the Power of Words Friday, August 17, 2012
- Had Winston Churchill never set foot in the House of Commons, he would still be remembered today as one of the major writers of his time.
- George Orwell, Call Your Office Wednesday, August 8, 2012
- Intellectuals, especially in the social sciences, have a nasty habit of thinking that, 'This is the way the world should be, therefore this is the way the ...
- What’s in a Name? Thursday, March 22, 2012
- Our naval ships should recall two centuries of American sea power and naval heroism, not battles on Capitol Hill.
- ‘A Sympathiser with the Poor’: Charles Dickens at 200 Tuesday, February 7, 2012
- Dickens knew a different world growing up, a world that would imbue him with a deep interest in social reform.
- Long Live the Queen! Monday, February 6, 2012
- Intellectuals tend to snobbishly decry any love for royalty, but the British would be crazy not to exploit their unique national asset.
- Snapshot of a Creative Destruction Monday, January 23, 2012
- Kodak, Rochester, and the decline of the industrial northeast.
- Good as Gold? Thursday, December 15, 2011
- Both very rare and useless for anything else, gold is uniquely useful as a store of value. While a gold standard will never return, here’s a way to make money ...
- Occupy Wall Street Faces a Winter of Discontent Wednesday, November 2, 2011
- When a vehicle parked at Wall and Broad Streets exploded, it was a deliberate attempt at mass murder. The year was 1920. Historian John Steele Gordon looks at ...
- The Henry Ford of Our Time Friday, August 26, 2011
- Like Ford, Steve Jobs took something that had largely been invented by others and transformed it—and the world—by making the technology accessible to the ...
- English: The Inescapable Language Thursday, August 18, 2011
- Native speakers of English have a great advantage. Learning English at our mothers’ knee is almost like being born able to do algebra.
- The End of the Book? Saturday, May 21, 2011
- The book business will go through a transformation in the next decade or so more profound than any it has seen since Johannes Gutenberg introduced printing ...
- An Immodest Proposal Regarding the Estate Tax Thursday, January 7, 2010
- Here’s a plan that both Republicans and Democrats should like.
- Debt Be Not Proud: The Sorry Tale of America’s Out-of-control Spending Monday, September 7, 2009
- How the richest country in the history of the world got into a position where its debt is spiraling out of control.
- The Other Half of Standard Oil Wednesday, October 29, 2008
- John D. Rockefeller could not have built his empire without one of America’s greatest entrepreneurs, Henry Flagler.
- Panics and Politics Wednesday, October 22, 2008
- How often have U.S. financial crises been followed by major political realignments?
- Does This Happen Often? Monday, October 6, 2008
- A look back at the financial crisis of 1836, which triggered America’s first protracted depression.
- The Buck Starts Here Monday, July 21, 2008
- The most revolutionary invention in history is so ingrained in our daily lives that we scarcely consider it an invention at all.