“May you live in interesting times.” So says the apocryphal Chinese proverb that may well have been more properly attributed to Austen and Neville Chamberlain’s father. All of us here can be said to have lived in interesting times, if interesting means, among other things, unsettled and inscrutable, not to mention ugly and unstable. But this generally means only that the proper perspective has not yet been attained. Digging beneath the surface usually reveals connections the powers of the day want to keep hidden. Many Americans will deny the American Empire exists, and it is true that these children of...