Liggio Legacy Project

by Leonard P. Liggio The current economic crisis in Ireland has a political dimension. Since 1987 the Irish government has been formed by the Fianna Fail (Soldiers of Destiny) party as has been the case for most of the years since Irish independence. It is a populist party not too concerned about fiscal limits and closely associated with the real estate developers in the recent boom. Ireland has been able to attract foreign investment in production in Ireland with a low corporation tax. It had drawn revenue strongly from a tax on real estate transactions which now have disappeared. The…

Read more »

by Leonard P. Liggio The FINANCIAL TIMES (May 7-8, 2011) contained a major book review: The Great Sea: A Human History of the Meditarranean (London, Allen Lane, 783 pages) by David Abulafia, professor of history at Cambridge University. Abulafia comes from a line of Sephardic Jews and has written Frederick II: A Medieval Emperor (Oxford University Press). The book stretches from early antiquity, through the Romans, Middle Ages, the Suez Canal to  the present. Abulafia’s earlier Frederick II provides a centerpiece to the new book. Frederick II (1194-1250) was Holy Roman Emperor through his father (Henry VI of Swabia) and King of the Two Sicilies…

Read more »

by Leonard P. Liggio Chris Patten, Chancellor of Oxford University, former EU commissioner and former last Governor-General of Hong Kong, presented a book review of Henry Kissinger’s new book, On China in the Financial Times article “Fateful Embrace.” (May 28/May 29, 2011). Chris Patten criticizes Kissinger for being too indulgent of Mao’s crimes. This issue emerges in the Washington Post (May 26, 2011) article by Andrew Higgins: “In China, a long path of writing the Communist Party’s history.” It has taken 16 years and four extensive re-writes with strong involvement of the leaders of China. “It gets particularly hard when…

Read more »

by Leonard P. Liggio When the Crusaders arrived at Antioch and Jerusalem in 1099, they not only had traversed the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) with its Greek liturgy and theology, but encountered the about twenty other Christian rites and traditions in the other three Patriarchates of Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria (in addition to Rome and Constantinople). Although the Greek and Latin churches had clashed in Constantinople in 1054, they did not consider themselves separated until the Ottoman Sultans imposed separation on the Patriarchate of Constantinople following the city’s fall in 1453. Indeed, the First Crusade was launched at the appeal…

Read more »