top of page

The John Batchelor Show with Michael Vlahos: #CivilWar?

"#CivilWar?" is an ongoing conversation between Michael Vlahos, historian from Johns Hopkins, and John Batchelor. Since May 2017, they have considered the idea that we may already be in a new American civil war and not realize it. Drawing on historical and literary examples, they offer many rich discussions that illumine the increasingly disturbing divisions in American politics and culture.

 

Unfortunately, as a result of cancel culture, their entire conversation was recently lost when the network John Batchelor was associated with deleted all of it. They're attempting to summarize much of their old content, which you can find here. 

You can read these two articles to get a general sense of what Dr. Vlahos' argument is:

We Were Made for Civil War

Michael Vlahos, The American Conservative - October 29, 2018

Civil division and its conquests are the true makers of America, and continue to shape its national progress—or threaten its undoing. Indeed, the very founding of the United States advanced the principle of civil conflict over all others. 

Civil War Begins When the Constitutional Order Breaks Down

Michael Vlahos, The American Conservative - November 4, 2019

A Georgetown Institute poll finds that two-thirds of us believe we are edging closer “to the brink of a civil war.” Yet Americans cannot properly analyze this “gathering storm.” We lack a framework, a lexicon, and the historical data (from other civil wars) to see clearly what is happening to us. Here is a quick template for how we might more usefully decipher how this nation gets to another civil war. 

Chambly copy.jpg

Michael Vlahos is a writer and author of The BLUE Sword: The Naval War College and the American Mission, and  Fighting Identity: Sacred War and World Change. He has taught war and strategy at Johns Hopkins University and the Naval War College and is a weekly contributor to The John Batchelor Show. His weekly conversations with John Batchelor have been very nearly uninterrupted since 2001. Follow him on Twitter @JHUWorldCrisis

Use this picture of JB.png

John Batchelor is an American author and host of The John Batchelor Show. On Twitter @batchelorshow

Gaius and Germanicus study the Antonine Plague of Marcus Aurelius for insights in the Covid-19 reports

November 27, 2021

Gaius and Germanicus watch NATO poke the Russian bear in the Black Sea; & What is to be done?

November 20, 2021

Gaius and Germanicus speak of Kabul and of the Caesar's siege of the innocents at Alesia; & What is to be done?

November 20, 2021

Gaius and Germanicus watch the sharks in the Thames as they debate the plague and Optimates successes at rule

November 14, 2021

Romans on the Danube, 90AD, just like Americans on the Black Sea, 2021 AD

November 13, 2021

Gaius and Germanicus discuss the divide of the Fourth-Century Roman Empire into two as a model for the American Empire

November 7, 2021

Gaius and Germanicus puzzle about the unpredicted results of the 2021 election

November 6, 2021

Gaius and Germanicus look ahead to the division of the Roman Empire into the blessed Greek East and the cursed Latin West

October 30, 2021

Gaius and Germanicus debate: what if the Colonies had stayed with an accommodating Parliament and King?
part 1

October 23, 2021

Gaius and Germanicus debate: what if the Colonies had stayed with an accommodating Parliament and King?
part 2

October 23, 2021

When the Optimates lose confidence in the Emperor, from Domitian 96 A.D. to Louis Napoleon 1870 A.D. and 2021 A.D.

October 17, 2021

Parliamentarian Edward Gibbon looks at Rome's Decline and glimpses London 1774 A.D. and Washington 2021 A.D., part 1

October 9, 2021

Parliamentarian Edward Gibbon looks at Rome's Decline and glimpses London 1774 A.D. and Washington 2021 A.D., part 2

October 9, 2021

Gaius and Germanicus debate the American Empire led by the unchallenged Optimates, 2021

September 25, 2021

Germanicus finds the formula for the transformation of the Republic to the Empire.

September 19, 2021

Gaius & Germanicus reflect on the death of Domination, 96 A.D.; and Chairman Mark Milley's remarks about violence and succession between October 2020 and January 2021 A.D.

September 18, 2021

Philosophizing (#AfterAfghanistan) on Tacitus opining on the might of the Roman Empire: "To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire; they make a [desert] and call it peace."

September 11, 2021

Gaius and Germanicus remembering the unknowns of unexpected horror such as 9-11-01

September 10, 2021

The Senatorial Class (Optimates 2021) cannot and will not acknowledge defeat in Afghanistan

September 5, 2021

Taliban perform a mock Roman Triumph 2000 years later

September 3, 2021

Three American Empire defeats and the recoveries, 1948, 1953, 1963

August 29, 2021

Reflecting upon the Roman Empire's setbacks (a/k/a defeats) the last 30 years since Boudica's raid; & What is to be done?

August 28, 2021

Gaius and Germanicus observe that the Roman Empire recovered from defeats like Boudica's Iceni, like the Taliban, and so will the American Empire

August 21, 2021

Gaius and Germanicus reflect upon the humiliation of the American Empire at Kabul

August 21, 2021

Gaius and Germanicus weigh how the Roman empire deals with rebel armies like Boudica's in 60 A.D; how the American empire deals with rebellions like the Taliban's, 2021 A.D.

August 14, 2021

Debating withdrawing from the frontiers of the Empire, 1st Century A.D., 21st Century A.D.

August 14, 2021

Gaius & Germanicus debate the transformation from Republic to Empire in the 21st Century

July 30, 2021

Gaius & Germanicus recognize imperial ascension is twinned with the risk of imperial succession, as illustrated by John D. Grainger in the 21st Century

August 6, 2021

bottom of page