Vortex Anglosphere : evolution of a network commonwealth
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how to contact us
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Leif Smith
303-778-0880
Explorers Foundation, Inc.
PO Box 9100
Denver, CO 80209
USA
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leifsmith@gmail.com — Important: If we are not already in email communication, please put “*****” at the beginning of the Subject: line of your email. This will assure that we don’t miss the first email you send to us.
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explorersfoundation.org/anglosphere.html — a vortex is a region of Explorers Foundation research and investment — 🔹 means new or changed
 
Oath of Fealty of the Aragonese Lords to their Monarch (15th c.)
We, who are as good as you,
swear to you, who are no better than us,
to accept you as our king and sovereign,
provided you observe all our liberties and laws,
but if not, no.
 
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Log
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Feb 29, 2024: Danube Institute’s celebration of 20th anniversary The Anglosphere Challenge
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Nov 13, 2022: Sean Gabb on need for a new party of the right in U.K.
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Aug 5, 2022: Arnold Kling on Folkways & David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed
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Dec 7, 2019: Charles Moore on significance of coming British election
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Sep 2018: “On Individualism” by Alan Macfarlane; Bennett on CANZUK
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Jun 24, 2017: Magna Carta, article by Alice Richmond
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Jun 11, 2017: article by Lilico; note on Bennett’s talk at British Academy, London, June 15, 2017.
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Mar 13, 2017: article by Gaffar Hussain, “What is Britishness”
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Feb 26, 2017:
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Second edition of A Time for Audacity, Bennett.
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CANZUK Uniting; Bennett and other contributors.
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Feb 11, 2017: New reference, in vZorro, to James C. Bennett’s work in as it pertains to Mexico and the intersection between the Anglosphere and the Hispanosphere, where we may perhaps begin to develop ideas useful to “a concert of civilizations,” a phrase provided by Bennett.
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Jan 29, 2017: Emmanuel Todd’s work on family types fundamental to understanding the Anglosphere
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May 23, 2016: Commonwealth Union FAQ, 1.0, by J. C. Bennett
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First paragraph and list of questions found in the FAQ which provides a reference design for a new form of network commonwealth: http://explorersfoundation.org/glyphery/562.html
Introductory paragraph:
Quietly, beneath the radar, a new idea is gathering interest and support in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the smaller Realms over which Queen Elizabeth still reigns. It is the idea that these four nations, and eventually others in the Commonwealth, should form a new federation with free trade, free movement of people, a mutual defence guarantee and combined military capabilities where appropriate, and a limited but effective confederal entity carrying out infrastructure and other mutual development projects currently beyond the ability or willingness of any individual Realm to carry out. Once dismissed as a nostalgic reprise of Empire, or an impractical fantasy, more and more people are realising that in the era of the Internet and cheap global air travel, common language, law, history, and traditions of government count for more than geographical proximity. This FAQ presents one ‘reference design’ of what such a Union could look like, as a basis for discussion. Others are possible. I am currently writing several books, non-fiction and fiction, based on this concept and its possibilities for the future. This will serve as an introduction to those works. If you find this interesting, I invite you to explore and follow further.
Contents:
• What is the Commonwealth Union?
• How does this relate to the Commonwealth of Nations?
• Why bother doing this?
• I like being a Brit (or English, or Canadian, or Australian, or Kiwi) perfectly well, thank you. Do I stop being one if this happens? What will I be, then?
• How will my life be different as a result of this?
• Will the Commonwealth Union be compatible with British membership in the European Union?
• Why will Britain want to join such a Commonwealth Union, after just having left the constraints of the European Union?
• Why will Canada join a Commonwealth Union?
• Why will Australia join such a Union?
• Why will New Zealand join such a Union?
• Who else might join the Commonwealth Union?
• Will the large, non-CANZUK Crown Realms be part of the Commonwealth Union?
• Will the Commonwealth Union make use of ‘Charter Cities’?
• Will countries that are not currently Crown Realms be able to join the Commonwealth Union?
• Isn’t this just re-assembling the British Empire?
• Is the Commonwealth Union a completely new idea?
• Wouldn’t the Commonwealth Union just be a ‘White Man’s Club’?
• Is Commonwealth Union compatible with Canadian membership in the North American Free Trade Agreement and British membership in the European Economic Area?
• Will the Commonwealth Union accede to the rights and benefits of defence treaties, like NATO and NORAD?
• Will there be a Union Constitution?
• Will there be a Commonwealth Union parliament and prime minister?
• Is a Commonwealth Union government necessary to create full free trade among its members?
• Will there be a Commonwealth Union court system?
• Will there be a Commonwealth Union police service?
• Where will the Commonwealth Union’s capital be?
• Will the Commonwealth Union use a common currency?
• How will the Commonwealth Union be financed?
• Will there be Commonwealth Union armed forces?
• Who will be the Commonwealth Union’s Head of State?
• Will the Commonwealth Union be a nuclear power?
• Will the Commonwealth Union assume the foreign relations responsibilities of the member nations?
• How will free movement of people be facilitated within the Union?
• How will trade and commerce be facilitated within the Union?
• Could Scotland or other political units join the Commonwealth Union directly?
• What about other kinds of political units, such as Canadian or Australian aboriginal populations?
• What about the USA?
• Why should the Union be introduced as a full state entity at an early moment, rather than gradually take on more characteristics of a state, in the manner of the European Union?
• How can such a Union be forged, and what role does a Grand Bargain play in its formation?
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The Commonwealth Union FAQ is here: http://explorersfoundation.org/archive/jcbennett-cu-faq-1.0.pdf A link to the FAQ and other information will be found on the Facebook page for the Anglosphere, featuring posts from James C. Bennett, Iain Murray and others: http://www.facebook.com/Anglospherists-289168004467874 “Brexit and Beyond: Why Americans Should Support British Exit From the European Union, and What Could Come Next”, by James C. Bennett, April 2016: http://explorersfoundation.org/archive/jcbennett-brexitandbeyond.pdf http://explorersfoundation.org/glyphery/562.html May 23, 2016; edited/updated May 28, 2016
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The Commonwealth Union FAQ is here: http://explorersfoundation.org/archive/jcbennett-cu-faq-1.0.pdf
 
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http://explorersfoundation.org/archive/jcbennett-cu-faq-1.0.pdf (about the first edition (pre-Bexit), contains all the questions from the FAQ comprising the second part of the published book, both first and second editions).
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April 29, 2016: Why British exit from the EU should matter to Americans, by J. C. Bennett.
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James C. Bennett, the author of The Anglosphere Challenge, Rowman & Littlefield, 2004, has written a short article on the benefits for America of a British exit from the European Union (EU).
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“Brexit and Beyond: Why Americans Should Support British Exit From the European Union, and What Could Come Next,” by James C. Bennett, April 2016 http://explorersfoundation.org/brexitandbeyond.html — a link to this article shortened for tweets: http://tinyurl.com/jcbbrexit
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February 21, 2016: Launch of the Audacious Union Project
We have launched the Audacious Union Project, to support a new book by James C. Bennett, author of The Anglosphere Challenge, and America 3.0 (co-author, Michael J. Lotus. The new book, A Most Audacious Union: How Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand Can Work Together to Make Themselves a More Prosperous, More Secure, and More Independent Major Power in the Twenty-First Century, proposes a federal form for a new Commonwealth Union, intended to release the practical expression of the freedoms historically valued by the people of the Anglosphere. Further information on this project here: http://explorersfoundation.org/AU.html
 
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🔹The 20th Anniversary of the publication of James C. Bennett’s The Anglosphere Challenge, will be celebrated in Budapest this April with a full day program, “The Anglosphere and Europe”, organized by the Danube Institute. Václav Klaus, former prime minister and president of the Czech Republic will participate. There will be more on this in the March 2024 Threads - access here, anytime: https://explorersfoundation.org/threads.html to see updates.
Explorer Foundation, and some friends, have provided significant support for Bennett’s work, which continued in 2023 as financial backing for Jim’s research for a book on the history and future of private space ventures. He was a pioneer in this field as leader of one of the first rocket companies, has been a major contributor to the law now governing space ventures, and currently serves as a consultant to space port and space technology ventures, public and private.
vAnglosphere
 
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“Suggestions for a New Party of the Right” ••• by Sean Gabb ••• published by libertarianism.uk
vAnglosphere
 
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Arnold Kling “Four Folkways and Liberty, 8/3: Comments on David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed
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Regarding a topic from our recent discussion with Virginia Postrel, Peter Saint-Andre once wrote:
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‘Fischer calls the New England idea "ordered liberty" (freedom to determine the course of one's own society), at worst exemplified in the stifling, moralistic conformism that we still associate with the word "Puritan", at best in the strong town-based democracies (and suspicion of anything but local power) still evident in parts of northern New England. The Virginia idea was that of "hegemonic liberty" (freedom to rule and not be ruled), at worst exemplified in the hierarchical "Slaveocracy" that valued freedom for those at the top but not for poor white trash or black slaves, at best in the aristocratic excellence of men such as George Washington. The Quaker idea was that of "reciprocal liberty" (freedom for me and for thou), at worst exemplified in the pacifistic pursuit of commerce without regard for nation or principle, at best in a quite modern-sounding respect for all human beings to pursue their own fulfillment. The frontier idea was that of "natural liberty" (a freedom without restraints of law or custom), at worst exemplified in the violent and often-emotionalistic chaos of life beyond the reach of civilized norms, at best in eternal vigilance with regard to the sovereignty of the individual.’
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Kling cites Saint-Andre’s “Ayn Rand and American Culture” •••
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Arnold Kling’s Substack: In My Tribe •••
 
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Janet Daley, in The Telegraph, London, 12 Dec 2019, 10:3pm GMT: “Well I have to admit it. I burst into tears. The people of Britain have spoken - the real people. Not the social media trolls or the Twitter addicts or that whole parallel universe of ghosts who seemed - to the credulous - to be what politics was about now, but the grown-up, decent, rational people of this country who have once again asserted their right to be heard.
"And because Boris Johnson insisted that this was a Brexit election - with that endlessly repeated mantra about ‘getting Brexit done’ - this was more than an election: it was a second referendum too. So that’s the end of that.”
 
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A moment out of Tolkien: ‘On Twitter, a Yorkshireman confirmed that locals were “coming down from the hills to see off the dark forces”.’ Sometimes I love the visionary atavism of the British people — an atavism that leaps chasms of darkness to light on the other side.
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The quotation was found in an article ••• by Allison Pearson ••• published in The Telegraph ••• (most of the content is behind a paywall).
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On the significance of cultural atavism see the recent book by Emmanuel Todd, Lineages of Modernity: A History of Humanity from the Stone Age to Homo Americanus
 
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Daniel Hannan’s 2016 edition of Why Vote Leave re-written after the voting was over, explains the reasons why “leave won and looks forward to bringing the sides together.
 
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Britain: “I said earlier that no general election this century has been pivotal. That is true, but one popular vote has been – the Leave result in 2016. It was the most comprehensive democratic repudiation of our establishments that this country has known.” —Charles Moore, The Telegraph, Dec 6, 2019.”It may not feel like it, but this election could turn out to be as pivotal as 1945 or 1979” ••• ~subscription may be required
 
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Dick Morris, 23 Jul 2019, published a short video, "Boris & Donald...Welcome to the Anglosphere!" ••• — Jim Bennett established the word in his 2004 book, The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-Speaking Nations Will Lead the Way in the Twenty-First Century. The impact of this book is growing and far reaching. The ideas and practices characteristic of the Anglosphere are transmissible and adaptable The concept is based on culture; race has no part in it. -ls
 
A Time for Audacity: How Brexit Has Created the CANZUK Option, by James C. Bennett, has at last been published, without technical problems, in a Kindle book, on Amazon. The book is in three parts: A post-Brexit introductory essay; a FAQ providing a reference design for a new form of union among Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.K.; and a collection of stories about the lives and choices of people living in the Union in the year 2036. More about the book ••• (including the introductory essay to the pre-Brexit edition, and all the questions answered in the FAQ). The Amazon page for this book •••
 
CANZUK Uniting ••• — contributors: James C. Bennett, Conrad Black, Jeremy Black, Michael R.J. Bonner, Brent H. Cameron, John Kenner, Roger Kimball, Andrew Lilico, Michael J. Lotus, Iain Murray, John O’Sullivan, Michael F. Reber, Andrew Roberts, James Skinner. Biographies of all participants are provided on the site, and they are all impressive. Notably absent from this list is Daniel Hannan, and the reason should be of interest.
 
When Jim Bennett spoke on the Anglosphere “Fact” at the British Academy in London, he offered an overview of the evolution of the Anglosphere concept and the uses to which it has been put over the last hundred and fifty years.
 
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Anglosphere as used by Jim Bennett:
‘The Anglosphere is more than the sum of all persons who have learned the English language. To be part of the Anglosphere implies the sharing of fundamental customs and values at the core of English-speaking cultures: individualism; rule of law; honoring of covenants; in general, the high-trust characteristics described by Francis Fukuyama in Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity; and the emphasis on freedom as a political and cultural value. The Anglosphere shares a narrative in which the Magna Carta, Bill of Rights, trial by jury, “innocent until proven guilty,” “a man’s home is his castle,” and “a man’s word is his bond” are common themes. Two persons communicating in English but sharing the narrative and assumptions of a different civilization are not necessarily a part of the Anglosphere, unless their values have also been affected by the core values of English-speaking civilization.’ — The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-Speaking Nations Will Lead the Way in the Twenty-First Century, James C. Bennett, pp. 79-80
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The word, Anglosphere
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The word, “Anglosphere” occurs once in Neal Stephenson’s novel, The Diamond Age, published in 1995. Jim Bennett used the word in a talk given at The Hudson Institute’s Thatcher Forum, October 1999 (date needs confirmation), in an article in the National Post, January 4, 2000, and in an article in The National Interest: Networking Nation-States (Winter 2003-2004), and then, finally, permanently established the word with his 2004 book, The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-Speaking Nations Will Lead the Way in the Twenty-First Century .
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🔹 “The tiny old houses and flats of this once impoverished quarter had mostly been refurbished into toeholds for young Atlantans from all around the Anglosphere, poor in equity but rich in expectations, who had come to the great city to incubate their careers.” —Page 410 of The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson, 1995, paperback edition by Bantam Books. This is probably the first use of the word Anglosphere.
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Robert Conquest is said to have used the word in a book published around 2000.
 
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The Anglosphere - non-racial explanations based on cultural evolution: James C. Bennett, in an article for Quadrant Magazine ••• notes ‘… substantial work in the social sciences over the past fifty years vindicating the assumptions of the continuity of English-speaking society … The Anglosphere as a unique thing among the cultures of the world is a real phenomenon and only now is it being fully described. This is important among other things because it shows that distinctions that in the 19th century were attributed to “race” or genetics were real, but had perfectly non-racial explanations based on cultural evolution. In other words, the 19th century Anglo-Saxonists were seeing real distinctions, but wrongly attributing them to race.’
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“CANZUK is calling. Will Britain respond?” ••• Andrew Lilico, Augusts 28, 2018
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“The Anglosphere is “at the heart of a re-emerging political world-view.” —NewStatesman, London, Feb 2015 •••
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The above link is: http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/02/rise-anglosphere-how-right-dreamed-new-conservative-world-order
 
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Foxes and Hedgehogs — “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” — a fragment from a text of the seventh century B.C. Greek poet, Archilochus, resurrected by Sir Isaiah Berlin in 1951.
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“The Hedgehog and the Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy’s View of History” ••• (the complete essay) London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson; New York: Simon and Schuster. Expanded version of ‘Lev Tolstoy’s Historical Scepticism’, Oxford Slavonic Papers, 2, 1951: 17–54. Reprinted in Berlin 2008; 2nd edition, ed. Henry Hardy, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013.
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See Claudio Véliz, Gothic Fox, below, page 11.
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“The Peculiar Blindness of Experts: Credentialed authorities are comically bad at predicting the future. But reliable forecasting is possible” by David Epstein ••• The Atlantic, June 2019
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Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World ••• (Amazon, good summary) by David Epstein, Riverhead Books (May 28, 2019)
 
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The New World of the Gothic Fox: Culture and Economy in English and Spanish America ••• by Claudio Véliz, University of California Press, 1994 —a superb book on the benefits of freeorder.
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Also by Claudio Véliz: “Pope Francis and Peron’s Last Hurrah” ••• Quadrant Magazine, February 2016
 
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“On Individualism” ••• Alan Macfarlane — regard for the individual was a cause of the industrial revolution, not a result of it. Macfarlane’s work on this has been revolutionary.
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Aug 1, 2016: Andrew Lilico: “From Brexit to CANZUK: A call from Britain to team up with Canada, Australia and New Zealand” ••• -Financial Times
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Aug 23, 2017: Daniel Hannan is interviewed ••• on BBC HARDtalk by Stephen Sackur, who asks, “If Brexit is not a clean break, then what’s the point?” Daniel Hannan, responds that Brexit is working out, because the main objective has been achieved, the return of control of Britain, under British law, ultimately determined by British democracy, and that negotiation of the remaining issues is possible and likely to happen.
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Jun 12, 2017 “Leavers must rally fast to stop zombie Remainers hijacking Brexit” ••• Hugh Bennett, Brexit Central
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UK/EU Negotiations after Brexit - Dan Hannan on the good prospects for new agreement ••• (video)
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“The Anglosphere is “at the heart of a re-emerging political world-view.” —NewStatesman, London, Feb 2015 •••
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The above link is: http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/02/rise-anglosphere-how-right-dreamed-new-conservative-world-order
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“Euroscepticism and the Anglosphere: Traditions and Dilemmas in Contemporary English Nationalism,” Journal of Common Market Studies, January 2015 issue, Volume 53, Issue 1, by Ben Wellings, Monash University, and Helen Baxendale, Oxford University. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcms.12207/full#jcms12207-sec-0004
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Some discussion of CANZUK potential will be found on Facebook, at CANZUK Federationists •••
 
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Explorers Foundation support for the Anglosphere
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We have made significant financial investments to further the development of this idea.
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Explorers Foundation invests in portions of the currently irrelevant which we believe, in time, will become currently critical. Bennett’s work on the Anglosphere and the potential for a Commonwealth Union is an example of the once barely relevant having become currently relevant, perhaps even critical, as British exit from the EU opens the way to the formation of a Commonwealth Union. -leif, October 2, 2016
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Daniel Hannan, at Acton Institute, October 9, 2014 •••
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There is a wealth of history and good ideas in the work of Hannan. Some of the links will appear here. -ls 10/30/16
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Magna Carta, 1215 - one of the foundation of Anglospheric freedom
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“The Magna Carta: Ideas for All Seasons” ••• by Alice Richmond ••• Deputy Chairman, Magna Carta 800th Anniversary 2015 Committee
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Stephen Langton ••• Archbishop of Canterbury, his contribution to Magna Carta
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474 Oath of Fealty of the Aragonese Lords to their Monarch - an illustration of medieval constitutionalism
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What is Britishness ••• an article in thecommentator ••• by Gaffar Hussain, March 12, 2012.
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Project Bennett — Explorers Foundation support of the work of James C. Bennett
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April 7, 2014: A lot has happened since this page was last updated. America 3.0, by Bennett & Lotus has been published. Bennett completed a 20,000 word article on Britain after exit from the EU. the article will be the basis for his next book, proposing a “commonwealth union” of Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. A few days ago he returned from Hungary, where under the auspices of the Danube Institute he spoke on the future of America.
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We hope to support the writing of two more books by James C. Bennett, the first to be practical with policy recommendations, the second to be on the origins, history, and anthropology of the Anglosphere, and the potential for the rapid emergence of an Anglospheric network commonwealth that would provide improved prospects for all the world's explorers of whatever race and circumstance of birth. Much of Bennett's work has had to do with developing the concept of "network commonwealth", and not only applicable to the Anglosphere, but also to the Hispanisphere, and other world affecting cultures.
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"Explorers Foundation Support Makes A Difference: Work Supported Wholly or Partly by EF 2004-­‐2010,” James C. Bennett, December 9, 2010 ••• — A listing of work done partially or wholly with EF support, concluding with Jim's comments.
The above report was written by Jim in December of 2010. A lot has happened since then. In August 2011 a contract was signed with an excellent publisher, Encounter Books, for the first of the two books Jim is writing, this one with co-author, Mike Lotus, attorney, Chicago, who publishes on the chicagoboyz blog as Lexington Green ••• (chicagoboyz "Lexington Green"). 27Dec13: This book was published May 28, 2013, as America 3.0.
Publication of America 3.0, (co-author, Michael J. Lotus), May 28, 2013
Reviews of America 3.0 •••
Publication of The Anglosphere Challenge, 2004
"Rowman & Littlefield The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-­‐Speaking Nations Will Lead the Way in the Twenty-­‐First Century "The Anglosphere Challenge’s writing and production was assisted jointly by timely and critical support by Explorers Foundation … and by another major contributor who wished his participation to be anonymous."
 
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Events
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New Criterion, Conference, relationship between the U.K. and the U.S., September 2013, New York.
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New Criterion, Conference: "Is America in Decline?" ••• — Friday, September 23, 2011, New York
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The editors [New Criterion] cordially invite the Friends and the Young Friends to a yearly conference that The New Criterion co-hosts with The Social Affairs Unit, a London-based think tank. This year, the conference will address the topic, "Is America in Decline?"   Conference participants include:  James Bennett, Jeremy Black, John Fonte, Michael Gleba, Simon Greene, Daniel Johnson, Roger Kimball, Andrew McCarthy, Michael Mosbacher, Charles Murray, John O’Sullivan, James Piereson, William Shawcross, and Keith Windschuttle 
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In the following partial listing of works by James C. Bennett a good place to start is: The Third Anglosphere Century ••• (pdf) (Heritage Foundation 2007); Amazon ••• (printed booklet, from $14.98 -checked May 31, 2016)
Books & Articles by James C. Bennett
[2017] A Time for Audacity: How Brexit Has Created the CANZUK Option ••• — An earlier edition of this book was published before the Brexit vote of 23 June 2016.=
[2013] America 3.0 ••• , with co-author, Michael J. Lotus
[2011] "Proposing a 'Coast Guard' for Space" •••, The New Atlantis •••; pdf version ••• (better)
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[2011] "Assimilation & the persistence of culture", The New Criterion, January 2011, available online by subscription or purchase of the specific article at ••• (New Criterion)
"Freedom, as it has historically been understood in the English-speaking world, includes as fundamental assumptions a cultural norm of individualism and a government that does not attempt to assume the role of a parent. These characteristics are deep-seated in our culture. Cultures are persistent, although neither immutable nor unevolving. So long as we are able to maintain our culture, it will be substantially free. By global standards, the culture and social systems of the English-speaking nations are some of the most individualistic. Interactions with other cultures therefore inherently involve a challenge to those features of our culture and a challenge by our culture to the less individualistic, less free features of theirs."
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[2010] "The Great U-Turn" ••• (National Review, Oct 4, 2010, cover story)
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[2010] "Exceptional Down to the Bone" ••• (pdf); National Review Online ••• (as published, Jun 21, 2010)
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[2010] "Space: Britain's New Frontier" ••• (published by the Economic Policy Centre •••)
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[2007] The Third Anglosphere Century: The English-Speaking World in an Era of Transition, Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, The Heritage Foundation ••• (booklet as pdf), and booklet from Amazon •••
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[2004] The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-Speaking Nations Will Lead the Way in the Twenty-First Century, by James C. Bennett. Roman & Littlefield, 2004 ••• (Amazon, books)
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Table of Contents •••
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Comments (small reviews)
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Coining the term network commonwealth to describe the loose political entities now emerging in the world based on a common language and heritage (of which Anglosphere is the first), Bennett believes that traits common to these entities—a particularly strong and independent civil society; openness and receptivity to the world, its people, and its ideas; and a dynamic economy—have uniquely positioned them to prosper in our time of dramatic technological and scientific change, provided they remain true to the demands of these changes. [source of this probably was Amazon]
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Reviewed bybMark Stewart on Amazon: "This is an accomplished short and succinct narrative that delves deeply and renders an insight into the broad dynamics of what makes the Anglosphere so unique. Not just as a force for Liberty or as a force for Good but as a Global Dynamic that has historically been an agent that deposed tyrants and quelled their ambitions, curtailed the worst in man and catered towards that which is his best. James has excelled here at illustrating what could easily be a lengthy volume alla Andrew Roberts into a rather compact accessible read. He does so simply and achieves much by making this important message so easily accessible to so many. I believe that for those readers who enjoyed it as much as I did and feel as strongly about the vision, this book empowers us to take that message forward and make good on it. Well done. For those who wish to delve even further I would suggest Robert Conquest's Reflections on a Ravaged Century, James's previous work & Andrew Roberts's work."
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[2004] "The Uses of the Network Commonwealth" ••• (a seminar at "The National Interest", Washington, D.C.)
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[2003] "Networking Nation-States: The Coming Info-National Order" ••• (article in "The National Interest")
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[2002] "An Anglosphere Primer" (Jim's early statement of his concept of the Anglosphere)
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An introduction to the concept of network commonwealth: “An Anglosphere Primer”, a paper written by Bennett for the Foreign Policy Research Institute in 2002 ••• (full article as a pdf)
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Bennett tells us that this paper is significantly out of date and should be replaced by a new version that includes more recent scholarship. 22Oct13, -leif
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[1999] "The End of Capitalism and the Triumph of the Market Economy" ••• (pdf)
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http://www.unitedcommonwealthsociety.org/2014/12/06/imperial-federation-after-130-years-part-1/ — by Ed Harris, Secretary of the United Commonwealth Society •••
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Emmanuel Todd’s work on family types fundamental to understanding the Anglosphere
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Emmanuel Todd’s theory of family types is now used by Bennett & Lotus (see their America 3.0, as a fundamental explanatory idea accounting for the dynamism of the Anglosphere.
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“America, England, Europe - Why Do We Differ?” ••• by James C. Bennett and Michael J. Lotus, in Hungarian Review •••, November 2013.
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On Brian Micklethwait’s blog
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Emmanuel Todd: Anthropology explains ideology •••
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Emmanuel Todd: The eight family systems ••• (Brian Micklethwait’s blog)
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How Emmanuel Todd’s ideas provoked a Bennett-Lotus grand theory •••
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John Wilkes Club ••• (personal and political liberty since 1745)
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Book Reviews
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The Anglosphere Challenge, by James C. Bennett
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America 3.0, By James C. Bennett and Michael J. Lotus — a collection of reviews: http://explorersfoundation.org/A3.0.html
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Fukuyama, Francis, The Origins of Political Order, reviewed by Adam Kirsch, "City Journal", Spring 2011 •••
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Wood, Ian S., Britain, Ireland, and the Second World War, reviewed by Daniel C. Williamson •••
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Noted by Mike Lotus (Lexington Green, at http://chicagoboyz.net
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Articles (by author, or by topic)
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Jim Bennett’s work is listed separately (see above). It inspires and focuses this vortex. We have provided signifcant financial support.
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Authors
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Barone, Michael, review of America 3.0
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/with-its-roots-in-the-nuclear-family-the-nation-evolves-into-america-3.0/article/2532638
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Black, Conrad
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This section needs better organization, but here is a story of a fascinating difference of opinion among conservatives. Was the U.S. Government working under the control of Soviet agents during WWII? My opinion is that such agents were influential but not dominant. -leif
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Black, on Diana West’s American Betrayal
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/355925/defaming-fdr-conrad-black
West’s reply: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/356025/another-day-another-attack-american-betrayal-diana-west
West’s reply to FrontPage Magazine:
http://dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/2608/If-Frontpage-Will-Lie-about-This-What-Wont-They-Lie-About.aspx
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Black, Diana West, Roosevelt - links provided by zenpundit
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Here is the Radosh review of West: http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/ronald-radosh/mccarthy-on-steroids/ 
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Here is Radosh at PJM explaining why he was so critical: http://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/2013/08/07/why-i-wrote-a-take-down-of-diana-wests-awful-book/
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Here is Horowitz firing back at West: http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/david-horowitz/editorial-our-controversy-with-diana-west/
Here is Conrad black’s earlier NRO column on West: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/358122/diana-wests-epic-fail-conrad-black 
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Codevilla, Angelo M.
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"America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution", from the July-August 2010 issue of "The American Spectator" •••
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Harris, Ed
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http://www.unitedcommonwealthsociety.org/2014/12/06/imperial-federation-after-130-years-part-1/
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Heaney, Seamus, (on Beowulf and his verse translation)
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Seamus Heaney, the Irish poet, on Beowulf and his verse translation ••• (link from J. Bennett)
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Hitchens, Christopher
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An Anglosphere Future: How a shared tradition of ideas and values—not bloodlines—can be a force for liberty, Autumn 2007
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http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_4_anglosphere.html
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Kirsch, Adam
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Review of The Dawn of Politics, by Fukuyama, in City Journal Spring 2011
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Kotkin, Joel
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Lotus, Mike
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Macfarlane, Alan
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See glyph 180 on Alan Macfarlane and his work.
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Mead, Walter Russell
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"Global Weirding Coming At Us All" •••, July 14, 2011, "The American Interest” ••• (Via Meadia, Mead's blog)
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Micklethwaite, xxx <to be added>
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Mohan, Peggy: “Is English the language of India’s future?” •••
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“It is a basic tenet of modern descriptive linguistics that real
languages are far more complex and internally consistent than any
grammars we could artificially construct. So, too, the real world is
far more complex and self-regulating than any world we could
devise.”
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Saint-André, Peter
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see vEudiamonia ••• for Peter’s work.
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“v” is a prefix identifying an Explorers Foundation vortex.
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Shideler, Mary McDermott (on J. R. R. Tolkien)
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"Inklings of Another World" ••• (about Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
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"In every age and culture, men have believed that they were the first in history to understand just what kind of a world this is. We are no exception. We are sure that our physical and biological sciences can show us what nature really is, and that our psychological and social sciences can now define what man really is. ... But a new element is entering our careful calculations, and is threatening to change them. Into this highly secular, scientific and rational world have come the Nine Walkers who constitute the Fellowship of the Ring: ..." —Shideler
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Smith, Leif
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"Thoughts on Wizards" ••• (probably should be read with “Weavers of Freeorder” •••
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Wignal, Christian (on Hong Kong)
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See glyph 295 "The Champion of Hong Kong's Freedom: Sir John Cowperthwaite, Hong Kong, 1941 to 1971", by Christian Wignall. And see this glyph for an additional article by Wignall: "Hong Kong stumbles along the road to serfdom".
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Topics
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Beowulf (the legend and poem)
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Seamus Heaney, the Irish poet, on Beowulf and his verse translation ••• (link from J. Bennett)
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On Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 7:23 AM, James Bennett <jamescbennett@gmail.com> wrote:
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Beowulf and Arthur both come from the same Indo-European hero legend archetype.  I like Beowulf a bit more because he is not a king -- Duchesne thinks that the fact that our heroes are often not kings is important. The Indo-Europeans were the first known culture to not attribute the highest form all virtues to their political leaders first, i.e., in Oriental legends the king is always the bravest, the smartest, etc. In Indo-European tradition the king is merely the leader of a group of companions of equal qualities. 
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glyph 474 Oath of Fealty of the Aragonese Lords to their Monarch (15th c.)
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Pat Wagner says this oath is well known among cats, who claim to have spoken it first. As a cat would see it, the Lords are saying simply this: "King, we are not your dogs."
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J. R. R. Tolkien, "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" •••
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From "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture, Proceedings of the British Academy, 1936, pp. 245-95.
Pasted_Graphic
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The Law of the Anglosphere
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The Tyranny of Good Intentions: How Prosecutors and Law Enforcement Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice, by Paul Craig Roberts and Lawrence M. Stratton (Three Rivers Press, 2000) — an excellent introduction to legal principals fundamental to "The Rights of Englishmen".
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See also evBlackstone: http://explorersfoundation.org/blackstone.html
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glyph 474 Oath of Fealty of the Aragonese Lords to their Monarch (15th c.)
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Pat Wagner says this oath is well known among cats, who claim to have spoken it first. As a cat would see it, the Lords are saying simply this: "King, we are not your dogs."
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Books
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Bennett, James C. (see above)
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Codevilla, Angelo M.
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The Ruling Class: How They Corrupted America and What We Can Do About It, (Beaufort Books 2010) — This book was a major catalyst of new opinion.
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Conquest, Robert
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The Dragons of Expectation: Reality and Delusion in the Course of History (W. W. Norton & Company 2004)
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Fischer, David Hackett
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Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America (Oxford University Press 1989)
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glyph 202 Albion's Seed, by David Hackett Fischer
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Hannan, Daniel
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The New Road to Serfdom: A Letter of Warning to America, 2010 •••
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufyov9RO8I0&ab_channel=HooverInstitution
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Inventing Freedom: How the English-Speaking Peoples Made the Modern World, 2013 •••
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Johnson, Paul
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The Offshore Islanders (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1972)
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Kotkin, Joel
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Lauck, Jon K. (Dakota)
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Prairie Republic: The Political Culture of Dakota Territory, 1879-1889 (University of Oklahoma Press 2010)
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Macfarlane, Alan
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Macfarlane is one of the principal sources for understanding the development of freeorder. We have acknowledged this by awarding him one of our Cobden-Bright Awards, and we thank him for his acceptance of the award. Mike Lotus discovered Macfarlane’s work, opened communication with him, and then introduced Jim Bennett to him. -ls
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eBooks (free to download) •••
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Yukichi Fukuzawa and the Making of the Modern World (Published originally in Making of the Modern World, Palgrave 2002)
F. W. Maitland and the Making of the Modern World (Published originally in Making of the Modern World, Palgrave 2002)
Baron de Montesquieu and the Making of the Modern World (Published originally in Riddle of the Modern World, Macmillan 2000)
Adam Smith and the Making of the Modern World (Published originally in Riddle of the Modern World, Macmillan 2000)
Alexis de Tocqueville and the Making of the Modern World (Published originally in Riddle of the Modern World, Macmillan 2000)
Thomas Malthus and the Making of the Modern World (ebook only)
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glyph 180 Alan Macfarlane
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O'Sullivan, John
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The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister: Three Who Changed the World (Regnery 2006)
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Description, quoted from the inside flap of the book
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They Changed the Course of History
They were three "middle managers" no one imagined could reach the top.
Ronald Reagan was too old to be president and too conservative anyway. Margaret Thatcher was not only too conservative she was a woman, and not on anyone's short list to lead Britain's Conservative Party. And the idea of a Polish pope that was truly absurd, especially when the cardinal in question was a strong anti-Communist and defender of orthodoxy when many in the Church and throughout the world believed the future belonged to détente with the Soviets and social liberalism in the West.
Not only did Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Karol Wojtyla (the future John Paul II) rise to the top, but all three of them also survived assassination attempts, collaborated in the miraculous peaceful liberation of Eastern Europe from Soviet Communism, and reinvigorated their respective countries and the West. They were beacons of optimism cutting through the malaise and despair that afflicted 1970s America, strike-ridden and economically moribund post-imperial Britain, and a Catholic Church rocked by social and sexual revolutions.
In The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister, veteran journalist and former Thatcher speechwriter John O'Sullivan reveals:
• How Reagan, Thatcher, and John Paul developed as strong and individual leaders, perfectly suited to take power when liberalism failed How John Paul's papal visit to Poland in June 1979 led to the birth of the Solidarity labor union
• How the pope's moral undermining of Communism worried the Soviet Politburo more than any military threat
• Why Thatcher's handling of the Falklands crisis was a turning point in the Cold War
• How Reagan arranged for the pope to receive U.S. intelligence on developments in the Soviet bloc
• Reagan's reluctant support for the nuclear "balance of terror" and how he gratefully adopted the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) as an effective alternative
• The Soviets' attempts to lure the pope into an anti-SDI campaign and his refusal
• How Reagan's refusal to compromise with Gorbachev in Reykjavik precipitated the unraveling of Soviet power
• How Reagan, Thatcher, and John Paul II restored optimism and hope to their people
Today, as we face a new and perhaps even deadlier enemy than Soviet Communism, we need to revisit the powerful lessons taught by these three great leaders who revived the faith, prosperity, and freedom of the West.
John O'Sullivan covered the Reagan presidency as a Washington columnist, was a special adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and has written regularly on Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Church's influence on international relations. A veteran journalist in Britain and the United States, he was the editor in chief of National Review, The National Interest, Policy Review, and United Press International, editorial page editor of the New York Post, op-ed and editorial page editor for the London Times, and an editor with the London Daily Telegraph. He is currently editor at large for National Review, a weekly columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, and a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute. A Commander of the British Empire and founder of the New Atlantic Initiative, he divides his time between his apartment in Washington, D.C., his home in Decatur, Alabama, and frequent trips to Britain, Europe, and Latin America.
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Phillips, Kevin (English-American history)
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The Cousins’ Wars: Religion, Politics and the Triumph of Anglo-America (Basic Books 1999)
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Stephenson, Neal
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The Diamond Age, by Stephenson, Neal Stephenson. Bennett says that the first use of the word Anglosphere may be in this novel. The work of Robert Conquest, beginning in 2000 should be reviewed for possible use of the word.
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Voltaire
See glyph 13 "Letters on the English", by Voltaire, 1733
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Vucetic, Srdjan
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The Anglosphere: A Geneology of a Racialized Identity in International Relations (Stanford 2011)
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The Anglosphere refers to a community of English-speaking states, nations, and societies centered on Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, which has profoundly influenced the direction of world history and fascinated countless observers.
This book argues that the origins of the Anglosphere are racial. Drawing on theories of collective identity-formation and framing, the book develops a new framework for analyzing foreign policy, which it then evaluates in case studies related to fin-de-siècle imperialism (1894-1903), the ill-fated Pacific Pact (1950-1), the Suez crisis (1956), the Vietnam escalation (1964-5), and the run-up to the Iraq war (2002-3). Each case study highlights the contestations over state and empire, race and nation, and liberal internationalism and anti-Americanism, taking into consideration how they shaped international conflict and cooperation. In reconstructing the history of the Anglosphere, the book engages directly with the most recent debates in international relations scholarship and American foreign policy. —Stanford University Press ••• (description, reviews, author info, excerpts, table of contents)
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Blogs & Websites
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Rafe Champion's Philosophy Site ••• & "Revivalist" magazine •••
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glyph 469 The Philosophy Site of Rafe Champion - treasures and surprises for friends of Karl Popper, Ludwig von Mises, F. A. Hayek, William Bartely III (author of Retreat to Commitment)
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"Getting to Know Popper", by Brian Magee ••• — found on Champion's site (proof of its value!)
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"The Rathouse ••• is a site dedicated to learning and scholarship in a playful, imaginative and sceptical mood. Leave your firearms at the door and come in for a breath of critical fresh air from the likes of Karl Popper and Jacques Barzun." … "On this site, you will find a range of essays, reviews and other items that I have written over some years. Many are inspired by the work of  Karl Popper, Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. Along with other great scholars such as Jacques Barzun, they deserve to be better known and better understood."
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Lotus, Mike — co-author, with James C. Bennett, of America 3.0 •••
Mike blogs as Lexington Green on Chicagoboyz ••• (many Anglospherian items)
Victorian Art ••• (devoted to Victorian/Edwardian Paintings
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Mead, Walter Russell ••• (Via Meadia, his blog)
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Micklethwaite, Brian
Four items on Emmanuel Todd (& Youssef Courbage) •••
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Glyphs
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474 Oath of Fealty of the Aragonese Lords to their Monarch
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469 The Philosophy Site of Rafe Champion - treasures and surprises for friends of Karl Popper, Ludwig von Mises, and F. A. Hayek
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010 "An Anglosphere Primer", by James C. Bennett - ©2001, 2002 by James C. Bennett, Presented to the Foreign Policy Research Institute
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176 The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-Speaking Nations Will Lead the Way in the Twenty-First Century, by James C. Bennett
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180 Alan Macfarlane - The Making of the Modern World, The Riddle of the Modern World & other contents of Alan Macfarlane's website
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295 "The Champion of Hong Kong's Freedom: Sir John Cowperthwaite, Hong Kong, 1941 to 1971", by Christian Wignall. See this glyph for an additional article by Wignall: "Hong Kong stumbles along the road to serfdom".
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202 Albion's Seed, by David Hackett Fischer - origins of complex, dynamic, stable order
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195 Albion's Seedlings - weblog on Anglosphere topics
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090 Philosophy and the Real World, by Brian Magee
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380 William of Ockham (1300-1349) as understood by Claudio Véliz - various kinds of decentralized disorder & the romantic disposition
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387 Realist and Nominalist — Baroque Hedgehog and Gothic Fox - a Greek myth central to Claudio Véliz' The New World of the Gothic Fox
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378 "The Factory System of the Early Nineteenth Century", by W. H. Hutt - toward a better understanding of conditions existing early in the Industrial Revolution
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Commentary at Mises Institute, with small image of a remarkable painting, "Coalbrookdale by Night" (1801), by Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg: http://mises.org/daily/2443
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416 Bennett's Conjecture on English Speaking India - the most important fact of the 21st century?
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013 013 Letters on the English, by Voltaire, 1733
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Quotations
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P. J. O’Rourke, on Cars -- found by Glenn Reynolds and posted on Instapundit for July 13, 2011
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“Cars didn’t shape our existence; cars let us escape with our lives. We’re way the heck out here in Valley Bottom Heights and Trout Antler Estates because we were at war with the cities. We fought rotten public schools, idiot municipal bureaucracies, corrupt political machines, rampant criminality and the pointy-headed busybodies. Cars gave us our dragoons and hussars, lent us speed and mobility, let us scout the terrain and probe the enemy’s lines. And thanks to our cars, when we lost the cities we weren’t forced to surrender, we were able to retreat.” —Glenn comments: "That’s why the nanny-staters hate ‘em. They want you under their thumb."
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History, Participants, Scholars
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History of this Vortex
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February 12, 2015: “Anglosphere” has become widely used, so changed name to Vortex Anglosphere.
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http://explorersfoundation.org/anglosphere.html - a new shortcut to this page.
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http://explorersfoundation.org/beowulf.html still works.
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August 4, 2011: The name was changed to Vortex Anglosphere to more accurately reflect its intent.
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Inspired by discussions with Jim Bennett and reading of historian Paul Johnson, this vortex was once named after Pelagius, born AD 350, because of his focus on the power of individuals to think and decide for themselves (see the note above by Paul Johnson). Theological disputes involving Pelagius and his work do not bear on the purpose of this vortex and, in that context they can be considered irrelevant. -leif smith, (Jim, do you concur? Mike?)
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Participants in Vortex Anglosphere (earlier names: Beowulf, Pelagius, Arthur)
Hollis Danvers, Bill Casey, Jim Bennett, Leif Smith, Barbara Johnson, Rand Simberg, Lexington Green, Peter Saint-André, Alan Macfarlane, Michael Lotus, James McCormick, John O'Sullivan, Pat Wagner, Mark Frazier, Bob Chitester, Ed Warner, ...
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Scholars whose work is contributory (bibliographies forthcoming (patience, please))
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James C. Bennett, Winston Churchill, Robert Conquest, Ricardo Duchesne, David Hackett Ed Harris, Fischer, Francis Fukuyama, Yukichi Fukuzawa, Daniel Hannan, F. A. Hayek, Paul Johnson, Joel Kotkin, Alan Macfarlane, F. W. Maitland, Montesquieu, John Morley, Noël Mostert, John O’Sullivan, Kevin Phillips, Murray N. Rothbard, Immanuel Todd, Claudio Véliz, Voltaire, Srdjan Vucetic
oOo.