Chuck Chalberg

John C. "Chuck" Chalberg has a Ph.D. in American History from the University of Minnesota. He writes from Bloomington, Minnesota.      

Recent blog posts by this author

G.K Chesterton, Modern Ethics, and the Anti-Smoking Crusade

We’ve all seen them, haven’t we?  I mean those ugly shots of lungs featured in anti-smoking campaigns.  It’s not likely that a cigar-smoking G.K. Chesterton ever caught this particular act.  After all, in his day tobacco was still a...

Paul Kengor's 'A Pope and a President' is a Divine Read

Whether you are a liberal or a conservative, your politics will likely be confirmed by reading A Pope and the President.  And that’s too bad.  Whether you are of a religious bent or not, your take on matters of faith will likely remain...

Why Chesterton Matters More Than Ever

As fall approaches and students head off to college, can hitting the books be far behind?  Maybe the attack is already underway, as incoming freshmen finally turn to that summer reading assigned by colleges at the time of their acceptance....

Douglas Murray and ‘The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam’

That Americans are a very lucky people was long ago recognized by a German Chancellor.  That would be Otto von Bismarck, who is alleged to have muttered more than once that “God takes care of drunks, little children, and the United States of...

‘Shattered’ Reveals the True Villains of Hillary Clinton’s Campaign

The 2016 presidential campaign was supposed to end with something being shattered.  And it did.  It just didn’t end with the sort of shattering that Hillary Clinton had long had in mind. Poised to bring that proverbial glass ceiling...

Liberals Have Become the New Confederates

“The South will rise again.”  How often did that rallying cry echo throughout a certain portion of the country following the Civil War? A lot. Actually, the South has risen in any number of very positive ways in the century and a half since...

Systemic Racism or the Collapse of the Family?

Those on the left and right have very different “what’s wrong with America” narratives—especially on the subject of race. The left presumes the pervasiveness of white racism; the right does not.  For those on the left, America has always...

Populism Has Finally Beat Progressivism

With a Trump presidency at hand an inescapable historical irony deserves to be noted. If there was a time in our history—and there was—when progressivism bested populism, this is a moment when populism has returned the favor. To be sure, the...

Do Americans Even Care about Freedom Anymore?

Think about the chief slogans for Campaign 2016, and then think back to the American founding. Something is missing. We have The Donald’s “Make America Great Again” up against Hillary’s “Stronger Together.” The two are virtually interchangeable. In...

We Might Be in for Party Reversals

Don’t look now, but we might be in the early stages of major reversals of our two major parties on two major issues. A pipe dream? Maybe so. A vain search for silver linings as Campaign 2016 slogs on? Possibly. And yet both reversals would actually...

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