Introducing Myself

Hello PJM readers,

Welcome to my new blog, which I hope will prove stimulating, provocative, entertaining and hopefully, will at times get many of you angry at me.  I will be writing about current political events, history, ideas, books, articles, bluegrass and folk music, and whatever else interests me and will hopefully be interesting to readers.

Many of you may already know my work from the various books I have written, or the articles and reviews I have recently had in The Weekly Standard, National Review, Frontpagemag.com, and The New Republic. For a long time, I have wished that I had a blog, so that I could respond instantly to events and items that cross my desk. Now Pajamas Media has given me the opportunity, and I’m set to go.

I have been called many names—“neo-conservative,” which is how at one time I called myself, thinking primarily of my overall view of foreign policy issues. My adversaries have used harsher terms, such as “the far-right extremist historian,” “McCarthyite writer,” “extremist partisan,” and the like. These are some of the gentler characterizations. To those who ask, I tell them that I consider myself a centrist/right moderate, leaning to the positions taken by many conservatives. I differ with them, however, on many issues. While I respect the arguments of those who consider themselves pro-life, and favor a ban on partial birth abortions, I still favor what is generally called the right of a woman to choose. So when it comes to many social and cultural issues, I do not have the position espoused by many conservatives. Most recently, Marty Peretz, editor of The New Republic, has called me “the myth-busting historian.” That is, finally, a term I am rather content with.

So, I hope that in this blog, I will as time goes along come up with many other myths to bust.

Finally, although I use Ronald for my books and articles (too late to change that), for this blog, I am using Ron, which is what everyone I know calls me.  Until next time,

Ron Radosh