From the Editor, Fall 2024
Celebrating the Legacy of Reason, Freedom, and Human Progress
Welcome to the Fall 2024 issue of The Objective Standard.
Today’s schools, media, and culture are rife with the idea that Western civilization’s legacy is primarily one of racism, imperialism, and oppression. To defend Western civilization against such charges is an act of bravery. Fortunately, Dr. Andrew Bernstein has that in abundance, plus a remarkable knowledge of history. In “The Case for Western Civilization,” he illustrates the many ways in which it has improved human life and shows that, although far from perfect, it is by far the best in recorded history.
One of the wonderful products of Western civilization is classical music. Although many of the great composers—Bach, Mozart, Beethoven—are still well-known today, others do not get the recognition they deserve. One such is Antonín Dvořák, a Czech visitor to the United States whose music uniquely captured the spirit of America. In “The Song of the New World,” Timothy Sandefur explores Dvořák’s life and works, shining a well-deserved light on this often-overlooked hero of American music history.
Another hero of American history is John Quincy Adams. In “John Quincy Adams and the Sacred Fire of Liberty,” Tom Malone explores the life, values, and career of the sixth president who, as Malone writes, was “a fount of moral courage who helped his country establish a noninterventionist foreign policy, end the War of 1812, defeat the 'slaveocracy’s' gag rule, and give national prominence to the abolitionist cause.”
Sadly, America is no longer the paragon of freedom and limited government it was in John Quincy Adams’s time. Today, the federal government routinely meddles in people’s business, destroying companies and preventing entrepreneurs from inventing new services and technologies. Such is the case with the government’s efforts to clamp down on cryptocurrency innovation. In “The War on Crypto,” Michael Dahlen details recent government regulations on the cryptocurrency industry and exposes the great harm that such policies do to businesses, people’s lives, and our chances of building a freer, more prosperous society.
Few people today make the case for free societies, innovation, and the benefits of Western civilization as powerfully as Swedish author and historian Johan Norberg. But despite how outspoken he is today in his defense of these values, he didn’t always believe in them. In “My Conversion from Anti-Industrialist to Lover of Human Progress,” Norberg describes his journey from opposing capitalism and its fruits to becoming a staunch advocate for both—and he discusses many of the ideas and thinkers that helped him along the way. His mission “is fueled in part by my gratitude for the people who keep on working and thinking and producing, even when people like my old self denigrate them. I had always taken progress for granted,” he reflects. “I did not recognize it, and I did not understand it, and now I am trying to make up for it.”
The reviews in this issue are:
The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots: A True Story of Slavery; A Rediscovered Narrative by John Swanson Jacobs, edited by Jonathan D. S. Schroeder, reviewed by Timothy Sandefur;
On the Warpath: My Battles with Indians, Pretendians, and Woke Warriors by Elizabeth Weiss_,_ reviewed by Timothy Sandefur;
Pudd’nhead Wilson with Those Extraordinary Twins: The Authoritative Edition by Mark Twain, edited by Benjamin Griffin, reviewed by Timothy Sandefur;
Star Trek Discovery, created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman, reviewed by me;
Fly Me to the Moon, directed by Greg Berlanti, reviewed by Angelica Walker-Werth.
I hope you enjoy the issue!