Friedrich --

A freebie online treat from the Wall Street Journal, which doesn't give much away for free: the historian Paul Johnson, who always writes with vigor, brains and perspective, explaining why Europe carries on as it does, here.

Sample passage:

We have to remember that twice in the 20th century, Europe came close to committing suicide by wars that in retrospect seem senseless. These were followed by a Cold War that imprisoned much of Europe in a cage of fear. In this process, Europe, a collection of vigorous peoples who pushed forward the frontiers of civilization for a thousand years and created the modern world, learned to opt for a safety-first existence in which comforts and short-term security became the object of policy. They sought a cozy Utopia, with risk and pain eliminated.

Best,

Michael