Suggested Answers to the Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

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Question 1

Is our author, Victor Davis Hanson, widely recognized as the foremost MILITARY historian in the nation, if not the world?

Answer 1

IMHO, absolutely re both the nation and the world.

Question 2

In “The End of Everything,” does he focus SOLELY ON ABRUPT WARTIME DESTRUCTIONS (vs. earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, plagues, climate change, etc.)?

Answer 2

Yes.

Question 3

Is he doing so as a warning to present-day America?

Answer 3

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 4

Does he focus on the wartime destruction of 4 civilizations –

• Thebes (destroyed by Alexander the Great in 335 BC)?
• Carthage (by Rome 149-146 BC)?
• Constantinople (by the Ottoman Turks in 1453)?
• The Aztec Empire (by Spain’s Hernán Cortés in 1521)?

Answer 4

Yes – Yes – Yes – Yes.

Question 5

Do we already know quite a bit about the fall of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) from past meetings?

Answer 5

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 6

For example, were all of the so-called Crusades launched BY THE VATICAN against the Turks between the time the Seljuk Turks swept into the Middle East (from Russian Turkestan and Chinese Turkistan, aka Sinkiang) in the mid-1000's and the fall of Constantinople (1453) to the Ottoman Turks by mobilizing European Christian nations to relieve military pressure against Constantinople (although all of the Crusades, except one, went to The Holy Land because “liberating The Holy Land” was “an easier sell” for The Vatican which realized that military attacks ANYWHERE against the Turks would relieve military pressure against Constantinople)?

Answer 6

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 7

And does every opera lover know quite a bit about Ancient Carthage from Hector Belioz’s famous “Les Troyens” whose Trojan refugees (following the Fall of Troy because of the famous Trojan Horse) settled for several years in Ancient Carthage with Queen Dido, and then left to found Rome?

Answer 7

Although Hector Berlioz is not as well known as Giacomo Puccini, Guiseppe Verdi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or Richard Wagner – you nonetheless IMHO are NOT a real “opera lover” if you are not intimately familiar with “Les Troyens.”

Question 8

Indeed, did our January 2013 meeting on “Assisted Suicide” note in passing that following the Fall of Troy, the Trojan MEN who saved the Trojan Citidel, then escaped to Carthage where they were welcomed by Queen Dido BUT THE TROJAN WOMEN WHO WERE TRAPPED IN A DIFFERENT PART OF TROY, COMMITTED MASS SUICIDE RATHER THAN BECOME SLAVES OF THE GREEK WARRIORS?

Answer 8

Yes.

Question 9

And did our January 2012 meeting on “Real Politik and Libya vs. Iran” focus on the significance of Libya and Algeria “sandwiching” Tunisia (whose capital Tunis is Ancient Carthage)?

Answer 9

Yes.

Question 10

And did our October 2008 meeting on “Team of Rivals” by Dorothy Kearns Goodwin invoke Carthage in its “Short Quiz” reference to William Manchester’s famous “Arms of Krupp” which posits that wars are usually won by one side having superior weapons or tactics (and, unlike Vietnam, having the will to use them) whose example (Q&A-12) was “Hannibal's use of elephants against Rome on behalf of ancient Carthage (modern-day Tunis on the African coast of the Mediterranean)”?

Answer 10

Yes.

BTW, Manchester’s “Arms of Krupp” posits that the relatively rare wars in which neither side has superior weapons/tactics – e.g., the American Civil War and Word War I trench warfare – are real “meat grinders” with zillions of casualties.

Question 11

Had we, as a group, been left to our own individual reading/study for information about Thebes (and Alexander the Great) and about the Aztecs (and Spain’s Hernán Cortés) FROM WHICH WE WILL NOW BE RESCUED BY “THE END OF EVERYTHING”?

Answer 11

Yes.

Question 12

Is Niall Ferguson widely recognized as the foremost ECONOMICS historian in the nation, if not the world?

Answer 12

IMHO, absolutely re both the nation and the world.

Question 13

Have several of his many books been the focus of past meetings?

Answer 13

Yes.

Question 14

Have several of the many books by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Ferguson’s wife) been the focus of past meetings?

Answer 14

Yes.

Question 15

On 4/24/2024, did Niall Ferguson publish an article announcing “Ferguson’s Law” that any great power that spends more on debt service (interest payments on the national debt) than on defense will not stay great for very long?

Answer 15

Yes - please see viewforum.php?f=811&sid=a432934265adc0b ... 50f23902e6 for a copy of the article.

Question 16

In addition to Victor Davis Hanson’s reasons why America appears doomed, does “Ferguson’s Law” provide another reason?

Answer 16

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 17

Have you already purchased a parachute (available for $490 from Amazon) in order to “bail out” if America crashes???

Answer 17

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

NB: Purchasing a parachute is a metaphor to pose a serious question.