Stabbed in the Back

As this article is from Harper's, it's predictably left. I normally read things from Harper's with a stronger bullshit filter on, because it's a given that they're likely to be closer to my worldview than the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal. Affirmation bias is dangerous. My passions are easily fired, and I need to be on guard to stay intellectually honest. (That said, Harper's is often quite a bit to the left of me.) The article, for all its predictable politics -- not saying I disagree, mind -- is also a perspicacious analysis wrapped around a fascinating bit of history that I mostly didn't know. The whole post-WWI narrative history is riveting stuff, to me. And anyone who believes the current acrimony in US politics is unprecedented will revise their thinking. (The photo shows German Field Marshalls Paul Ludwig Hindenburg and Eric von Ludendorf. See the article to figure out why I'd illustrate this entry with their pointy heads.) ..