Recent stories of note:
“Stories about the Dongbei rust belt are resonant in China”
The Economist
Imagine, for a moment, if the American youth suddenly became obsessed with the culture and history of Akron, Ohio, or Gary, Indiana. Consider how surprising it would be if they began dressing like a mid-century steel-factory worker, or singing about the bygone days of heavy industry’s triumph across the Rust Belt. Something similar is happening in China: the Dongbei Renaissance. Throughout the Land of Silk, a renewed interest has arisen in the Dongbei region, China’s Rust Belt. The three provinces comprising the region formed the heavy-industry heart of China’s twentieth-century economy, but their resources have since been depleted and businesses have skipped town. But recently a nostalgia for the area’s heyday in the Seventies has taken hold of certain disaffected segments of Chinese culture, as has a fascination with its decline. The Economist examines this phenomenon, comparing some of its artistic products to J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy (2016) and Hollywood’s film noir.
“A Tale of Two Statues”
Joshua T. Katz, Law and Liberty
“Only the fear of God can deliver us from the fear of man,” said Reverend John Witherspoon (1723–94). Unfortunately for Witherspoon, he stands in need of deliverance from Princeton students and faculty. A signer of the Declaration of Independence and the sixth president of Princeton, Witherspoon has of late come under attack for his regrettable owning of two slaves. This has driven some Princetonians to iconoclasm. Various petitions written in recent years by university students and professors have called for the removal of a prominent statue of Witherspoon on campus. Fortunately for Witherspoon, he has Joshua T. Katz at his defense. Katz cautioned against the anti-Witherspoon mania when it first reared its ugly head in 2020, then noting that the purity test being applied to Witherspoon’s legacy was one few could pass—and that the administers of the test today would likely fail the test themselves tomorrow. He continues his careful vindication of the reverend here in the pages of Law and Liberty and expands his scope to several other mistreated historical icons.
“‘Herod the Great’ Review: Rome’s Man in Jerusalem”
Dominic Green, The Wall Street Journal
Herod I (B.C. 72–4) is also known as Herod the Great, which raises a question: great according to whom? Certainly not his Jewish subjects, who found him tyrannical and cruel even as he rebuilt the Second Temple, and certainly not any generation of Christians, who hold him responsible for the Massacre of the Innocents. Even Emperor Augustus is said to have considered the man distasteful, reportedly telling a counselor that “it is better to be Herod’s pig than his son.” So decried is he that one may wonder whether he really was as monstrous as he’s been made out to be—perhaps the ugly reputation is undeserved. Or perhaps not. As Dominic Green reveals in a review of Martin Goodman’s Herod the Great for The Wall Street Journal, the king did specialize in savagery. More than one of his rivals ate their last supper at the king’s table. But he also had an undeniable savvy for politics, surviving multiple attempts on his life and failed coups. Green takes a look at the various facets of the man and his reign, providing a nuanced and surprising portrait. For more from Green, take a listen to his remarks delivered last week to the Friends of The New Criterion on the vital question: “Is there life after woke?”