It is no good knowing your history if you are willfully blind to the lessons that it gives. Victor Davis Hanson has a Ph.D. in the Classics from Stanford University, so he knows his history. But as “Spengler” demonstrates in this week’s “essay of the week” that does not stop Hanson from being willfully blind to the lessons that history offers.

“Spengler” published this essay a year ago, but it still stands as a valid rebuke to those who believe that we can cure the world’s ills by spreading democracy.