As Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine grinds on, we should ask one question: Why didn’t he invade the Baltic states instead? Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, like Ukraine, were Soviet satellites for 50 years. More than a million ethnic Russians still live there, providing a handy excuse for a “special military operation.” More importantly,...
While we were watching the political chaos of 2020 and early 2021 unfold, Baylor historian Robert Elder was quietly finishing his long and masterful biography of John C. Calhoun. In “Calhoun: American Heretic,” Elder makes one of America’s strangest and most controversial figures familiar without understating any of his flaws. From Calhoun’s youthful presidential dreams...