For my part, in a world so full of secrecies and corruption as this, I sympathise with the man who makes a row; making a row is certainly the essential prelude to making anything else. The man who kicks up a shindy will probably improve the morals of mankind; he will beyond any question improve his own. In short, I believe in getting into hot water. I think it keeps you clean.”
-G.K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News, March 10, 1906
Why did I become a historian? To win arguments.”
-Thaddeus Russell, Unregistered Podcast, July 2018
He’s a truly great historian; he has enriched his subject with a new uncertainty.”
-Anatole France, Quoted in Bernard Lewis, Notes on a Century: Reflections of a Middle Eastern Historian, 2013
History has gotten me into a whole lot of trouble; or better, the only possible way for me to do it has gotten me into a lot of hot water. I’ve been censored, suspended, even canned for making arguments. I have been disregarded by the those who cling to the conventional, those who only peer through the Overton window–God bless their hearts because He sure as hell has not blessed their minds. Doing history the right way caused all of this, and frankly, I would not want it any other way. I like eating lunch alone.
Alone in a literal sense, but not alone in a spiritual or like-minded one. My company includes Bernard Lewis, whose timeless works as the greatest historian of the Middle East speak their own merit to the reader; among them is his sublime reflection on our craft, Notes on a Century: Reflections of a Middle Eastern Historian, 2013. Lewis reiterates what I learned from the best history profs I’ve had; namely, the vocation of the historian is to “tell the truth and the whole truth” all the while recognizing and accounting for the natural biases and predispositions that color one’s analysis. Equally nefarious then are the pseudo-historians who: 1) Falsify, fabricate or downright propagandize the past to suit ideological, philosophical or political aims, and the others who 2) Believe themselves to be so above the fray, so impervious to bias, that they maintain perfect objectivity to be in their grasp. Yuck. Do that in literature, and someone gets a skewed reading of Marlowe–big freaking deal. Do that in history though, and you’ll succeed in warping the worldview of students with propaganda and “your facts” to the point of rendering for them an alternate reality. I have never been nor will I ever be of the indoctrinating fallacy type.
Countless others join us to dine, yet many of them judiciously keep their proverbial heads down. You know who never keep their heads down? Historians Tom Woods and Thaddeus Russell. Pick up their works, and whether in their podcasts or their scholarly books, you will realize something right away: The cardinal virtue of fortitude and the gift of wisdom are not dead rather dynamically operative within them. Gotta also love Russell’s response to the prompt, why study history. Thad’s answer: “To win arguments.” Good enough for me.
I dedicate this site to winning arguments. I dedicate it to all those who taught me and are still teaching me (colleagues, students, former teachers) how to do so and revel in it. I dedicate it to uncovering truth (Note: Pace Thad, but a postmodernist 90% truth certainty is better than a 100% false claim). After all, there should be joy found in enlightening people by smashing all of the cartoonish history provided for them and instilled in them from their 4th grade state agents, CNN and Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Baby it’s cold outside, so let’s get into some hot water–Chesterton was right–it keeps you clean. I say it also keeps you free. And I’ve never been freer.
Gary (Athanasius) Richied
[O]f all the things a police state can do to its citizens, distorting history is possibly the most pernicious.”
– Robert A. Heinlein
Donc, écrasez la vraie infamie!”
– Gary Richied
Press/Conference Professional Bio
