Adam J. West

Economist, demographer, and Cambridge scholar Thomas Malthus was born 250 years ago, in February 1766, near Dorking, England. His father is said to have been a friend of the philosophers David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the young man imbibed philosophy, Latin, Greek and mathematics as a student at Oxford.

The summer of 2015 marks 1,000 years since the Viking invasion of England by Canute and the commencement of his campaign to become king of England. What lessons can be learned from the legendary life of King Canute? In what way does Canute's understanding of the true source of power impact our view of the world's modern political system?

June 18, 2015 marks the bicentennial of the Battle of Waterloo, a battle that 200 years ago halted abruptly the second Hundred Years' War between Britain and France. As historian Jeremy Black asserts, "Waterloo was an iconic battle for the British, a triumph of endurance that ensured a nineteenth-century world in which Britain played the key role" (Waterloo, p. xi). Waterloo was a crucial victory—not only for British ascendancy, but also in fulfilling ancient promises recorded in Scripture. So, how did these promises impact the outcome of Waterloo and beckon the rise of the British Empire?