The Problem with Fear

I woke up thinking about you. There I was, at 4:41 a.m., sitting in my living room, wondering about you.

I heard the doctor gave you bad news. And I couldn’t help but imagine how afraid you must be.

The Real Virus: How Fear, Stress, and Certainty Changed Us

You didn’t need a history degree to recognize what was happening during the pandemic—you just needed to pay attention to how quickly ordinary people changed under pressure. Not all at once, not everywhere, but enough to notice a pattern. Stress, fear, and anxiety didn’t just shape policy; they reshaped behavior. And in many cases, they …

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The Battlefield Moved, Humans Didn’t: Why a 1930s Historian Still Understands Modern War Better Than We Do

Nearly a hundred years ago, Sir Herbert Butterfield sat down and committed the unforgivable sin of telling historians, strategists, and polite academics something they still hate hearing today: war is not a clean system. It is not a spreadsheet problem. It is not solved by better charts, prettier maps, or a PowerPoint deck with the right color palette. War—every war—boils down to frightened human beings trying to reconcile self-preservation, honor, faith, and meaning while other frightened human beings try to kill them.