Fall 2024 • Vol 19, No. 3
From the Editor, Fall 2024
Welcome to the Fall 2024 issue of The Objective Standard, featuring articles on defending Western civilization, the music of Antonin Dvořák, the achievements of John Quincy Adams, and the injustice of cryptocurrency regulation. Continue »
Cover Article
History, Politics & Rights
The Case for Western Civilization
Western civilization is the most life-giving culture of history. All human beings who care about human life on Earth—regardless of their race or gender—morally must celebrate this life-advancing civilization.
Features
Arts & Culture, History
The Song of the New World
Antonin Dvořák managed to capture a beautifully American sense of life: the moment of dawning opportunity, the first glimpse of the potential for triumph, of the chance to prevail that has always been the New World’s greatest gift.
History, Politics & Rights
John Quincy Adams and the Sacred Fire of Liberty
John Quincy Adams 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, secure freedom for the Amistad captives, and give national prominence to the abolitionist cause.
Economics, Politics & Rights
The War on Crypto
The government’s illegal de-bankings, unprecedented sanctions, unwarranted prosecutions, and endless, indiscriminate enforcement actions have sent a clear message to crypto innovators: You are not welcome here. Rather than allow a young, burgeoning industry to develop, the government aims to crush it.
Politics & Rights
My Conversion from Anti-Industrialist to Lover of Human Progress
Sometimes when I talk and write about the importance of science, technology, and entrepreneurship to human opportunity and living standards, people ask me why I seem so obsessed with progress. There is a simple reason: I did not use to believe in it.
Reviews
History, Politics & Rights, Reviews
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. Shroeder
Six Hundred Thousand Despots offers us a fresh view on slavery by one who not only experienced it, but evinced extraordinary heroism in escaping from bondage.
Politics & Rights, Reviews
On the Warpath: My Battles with Indians, Pretendians, and Woke Warriors by Elizabeth Weiss
In her new memoir, On the Warpath, Elizabeth Weiss reveals how anthropology is slowly being sacrificed for the sake of that toxically irrational sludge of ideologies collectively known as “wokeness.”
Arts & Culture, Reviews
Pudd’nhead Wilson with Those Extraordinary Twins: The Authoritative Edition by Mark Twain, edited by Benjamin Griffin
The Mark Twain Project’s authoritative edition of Pudd’nhead Wilson is an important scholarly resource, a delightful read for Twain devotees, and an opportunity for readers at large to gain more insight into the author’s sincere, if imperfect, efforts to attack the scourge of racial prejudice.
Arts & Culture, Reviews
Star Trek: Discovery, Created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman
Star Trek: Discovery's great potential and interesting story concepts are hampered by poor character development and ham-fisted treatment of moral questions. Nonetheless, it provides some quality sci-fi stories and it deserves recognition for setting up the successful, more benevolent Strange New Worlds.
Arts & Culture, Reviews
Fly Me to the Moon, Directed by Greg Berlanti
Some say that you should reach for the Moon, because if you miss, you’ll land among the stars. Unfortunately, despite its starpower, Fly Me to the Moon fails even to get off the ground.