Tag: Castalia Library

Immigration and Military Power

As we know, Martin van Creveld has demonstrated that immigration is simply another form of war, and an invasion is an invasion regardless of whether it is a peaceful, unarmed, and disorganized one that is welcomed by a governing elite or an armed and organized one that is resisted by the governing elite.

But one of the lessons demonstrated by Sir Charles Oman in his The Art of War in the Middle Ages is the way in which immigration and the reliance upon foreign troops is intrinsically deleterious to the nation’s military organization and will inevitably weaken even the most dominant military power. And this weakness is distinct from the separate problem of foreign military commanders whose loyalties tend to be outweighed by either their ethnic interests or their self-interests.

As he demonstrates in the first chapter of his excellent essay, now being serialized at Castalia Library, the Roman Empire suffered both of these negative effects.

The morale of the Roman army was no longer what it had once been: the corps were no longer homogeneous, and the insufficient supply of recruits was eked out by enlisting slaves and barbarians in the legions themselves, and not only among the auxiliary cohorts. Though seldom wanting in courage, the troops of the fourth century had lost the self-reliance and cohesion of the old Roman infantry, and required far more careful handling on the part of the general. Few facts show this more forcibly than the proposal of the tactician Urbicius to furnish the legionaries with a large supply of portable beams and stakes, to be carried by pack-mules attached to each cohort. These were to be planted on the flanks and in the front of the legion, when there was a probability of its being attacked by hostile cavalry: behind them the Romans were to await the enemy’s onset, without any attempt to assume the offensive.

This proposition marks a great decay in the efficiency of the imperial foot-soldier: the troops of a previous generation would have scorned such a device, accustomed as they were to drive back with ease the assaults of the Parthian and Sarmatian cataphracti.

It should not be a surprise that the US military is in observable decline, having lost its global superpower status and has been surpassed in several areas by the Russian and Chinese militaries, given the fact that the percentage of foreign-born U.S. veterans rose from 2 percent in 1990 to 4.5 percent in 2022. And, of course, this doesn’t even count the much larger number of foreigners who were second- or third-generation immigrants whose interests do not necessarily align with those of the native population.

History is an absolute necessity if one wishes to understand the probable consequences of current events. Even if you have relatively little interest in leatherbound books, or in the aesthetic aspects of the most beautiful books in the world, it will behoove you to consider signing up for a free subscription to the Castalia Library substack for the benefit of the daily serial alone. On a related note, I’m pleased to be able to announce that yesterday, Castalia Library reached 3,000 daily subscribers.

In other Castalia-related news, we have completed the interior layout for THE JUNIOR CLASSICS Volume Nine, Sport & Adventure. We anticipate shipping both volumes Nine and Ten to the backers in November, although demi-royal backers will probably need to wait until December to receive theirs. And for those who were not original backers, we anticipate making the regular editions available as part of the annual Thanksgiving sale.

And yes, we will be announcing a 2nd Edition of The Castalia Junior Classics in leather and making them available once the complete set of the Original Backer’s Leather Editions is in production at the US bindery. The difference will be that the 2nd Edition will be bound in pigskin at the Castalia Bindery.

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The Art of War in the Middle Ages

The Art of War has been very simply defined as ‘the art which enables any commander to worst the forces opposed to him.’ It is therefore conversant with an enormous variety of subjects: Strategy and Tactics are but two of the more important of its branches. Besides dealing with discipline, organization, and armament, it is bound to investigate every means which can be adapted to increase the physical or moral efficiency of an army. The author who opened his work with a dissertation on ‘the age which is preferable in a generalissimo,’ or ‘the average height which the infantry soldier should attain,’ was dealing with the Art of War, no less than he who confined himself to purely tactical speculations.

Today marks the launch of the new serialization at the Castalia Library substack. The work being serialized is the Oxford edition of Sir Charles Oman’s original 1884 Lothian Prize-winning essay: THE ART OF WAR IN THE MIDDLE AGES A.D. 378–1515.

The essay is the precursor to the work being published by Castalia Library as the Sep-Dec 2025 subscription book, which is an expanded version of the essay that was published in 1898 by Methuen & Co. as A HISTORY OF THE ART OF WAR: The Middle Ages From the Fourth to the Fourteenth Century.

In my humble opinion, this book is a must-have for anyone with an interest in either history or war. If you haven’t subscribed to Castalia History yet, this is a book that should make you seriously considering doing so, because it’s going to be an instant classic and will almost certainly sell out before it’s even available.

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THE MEDITATIONS available

Castalia Library is making 140 copies of its Bindery Test edition of THE MEDITATIONS by Marcus Aurelius available to interested parties at a reduced price. Please note that this edition lacks both a) gilded page edges and b) spine hubs. It is further identified with a Chateau Castalia logo on the pre-title page and “A Test Run of 200” on the title page.

For more information about the Bindery Test edition, pictures, and a very cool video of our new laser in action, please visit the Castalia Library substack.

You can also purchase copies of THE MEDITATIONS (Bindery edition) from NDM Express.

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Paypal is Turned Off

Castalia Library, SG, and Arkhaven subscribers should be informed that the Arkhaven store no longer accepts Paypal. There hasn’t been any denial of service or anything like that, but we just don’t make enough use of it to justify including it as a payment option. And whether they permit us to keep using it or not, we’re very aware that it’s not a service upon which we believe we can reasonably rely.

There are only a very small number of Library subscribers affected, and we’ll get in touch with all of them in the next two weeks to make sure they make a smooth transition without losing any books. This will have no effect on anyone’s access to SG or anywhere else; we will come up with a replacement sometime in the next month or two. With regards to Arkhaven, we’re looking very hard if continuing Arktoons in its present form makes any sense or not due to the fact that we presently have no devs working on it.

We haven’t made any decisions, but we always periodically look at whether resources spent on one project would be more wisely allocated somewhere else and since we’ve just shut down the ability to subscribe to Arktoons, this is the right time to do that.

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The Last Day

Today is the last day for the first three Signed First Editions from Castalia Library:

  • GUNS OF MARS
  • OUT OF SHADOWS
  • DEATH AND THE DEVIL

The interest in the first three Signed First Editions and the support for the bindery that has been provided through them has been exceptional and very much appreciated. The level of support we’ve been given means that we can not only pay for the new machine that has been ordered and is being tested with an entire print run this week, but also for the tool sets for all of the hub sizes that we’re doing to need from Promethean to Plutarch.

However, we have to stop selling the books before we can start making them, so both Arkhaven and NDM Express are going to stop selling all three at midnight tonight. Until then, you can order from either store.

Thanks to the stronger-than-expected level of interest, we’ve also arranged to provide original chapter-heading artwork for all three books by MIDNIGHT’S WAR illustrator Ademir Leal. I’ve also added a thirteenth story to DEATH AND THE DEVIL, called “Death and War,” which should increase the size of the book to around 175 pages.

On a related note, if you are a Libraria subscriber, PLEASE EMAIL US and tell us which of the three books you would like. About half of you have responded to my initial email, and I will send another one now to bring it to the top of your inboxes.

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OUT OF THE SHADOWS

An excerpt from my forthcoming novel, now available as a Signed First Edition from Castalia Library. For more details, visit the substack:

The Wall Street Journal

BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY

In an exclusive interview, CEO Elliott Grahame reveals that his biotech startup plans to extend human lifespan by up to 25 years—and how 20,000 people will receive the treatment within the next 12 months

By David Porter

SAN FRANCISCO—The conference room on the top floor of HemaTech’s gleaming South San Francisco headquarters offers a panoramic view of the Bay Area’s biotech corridor, a fitting backdrop for what is almost certainly the most significant medical announcement of the 21st century. Elliott Grahame, the 38-year-old founder and CEO of HemaTech, sits across from me, looking remarkably composed for someone about to reveal that his company has cracked one of humanity’s oldest challenges: extending the human lifespan.

“We’re not talking about marginal improvements,” Grahame says, his voice carrying the careful precision of someone who understands the weight of his words. “We’re talking about adding 20 to 25 healthy, productive years to the average human life.”

It’s a claim that would sound like pure science fiction if it weren’t backed by years of rigorous research, a panoply of successful human and animal trials, and the backing of some of Europe’s most prestigious investment firms. HemaTech, which just six months ago withdrew from a highly anticipated IPO, has been operating in relative secrecy while perfecting what Grahame calls “the most significant advancement in human biology since the discovery of antibiotics.”

The Science of Longevity

The technology behind HemaTech’s breakthrough centers on what the company terms “Selective Cellular Regeneration Therapy” or SCRT. Without diving too deeply into the proprietary details, Grahame explains that the treatment involves a combination of modified mRNA sequences that reprogram certain cells to maintain their younger characteristics for extended periods of time.

“Think of it like this,” Grahame explains, leaning forward with the infectious enthusiasm that has characterized his career since his days at Stanford’s bioengineering program. “Every cell in your body has a built-in timer—telomeres that shorten with each division, accumulated damage from oxidative stress, genetic mutations that build up over time. Our therapy doesn’t just slow these processes; it reverses some of them and prevents others from occurring in the first place.”

The science builds on decades of longevity research, from the discovery of telomerase to recent breakthroughs in cellular reprogramming. But where others have achieved incremental success in laboratory settings, HemaTech claims to have developed a scalable, safe, and effective treatment suitable for human application.

Dr. Elodie Mitchell, a leading geneticist at Johns Hopkins who is not affiliated with HemaTech but has reviewed their published data, calls the achievement “paradigm-shifting.” She notes, “If their clinical data holds up under broader application, we’re looking at the biggest revolution in human health since the discovery of penicillin. The implications are staggering.”

A Grandiose Vision

As our interview concludes, I ask Grahame about HemaTech’s ultimate vision. Where does this all lead?

“In the immediate term, we’re focused on our 20,000-patient rollout and gathering the necessary data to support our campaign for broader regulatory approval,” he says. “Medium-term, we want to drive costs down and access up—our goal is to make this affordable and available to anyone who wants it within 30 years.”

“And long-term?” I press.

Grahame looks out at the Bay Area sprawl, seeming to see something beyond the immediate landscape. “Long-term, we’re talking about a fundamental redefinition of human existence. When death becomes a choice rather than an inevitability, everything changes—our relationships, our ambitions, our entire social structure. We’re not just extending life; we’re transforming what it means to be human.”

It’s a grandiose vision, but sitting in HemaTech’s offices, surrounded by the evidence of their achievement, it doesn’t seem impossible. The company has already done what many thought couldn’t be done—developed a practical, effective means of significantly extending human life. The question now isn’t whether life extension is possible, but how quickly it will reshape our world.

David Porter is a senior technology and business correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. He has covered the biotech industry for fifteen years. HemaTech expects to begin its expanded treatment program in January. For more information about their technology and treatment protocols, visit www.hematech.com.

OUT OF THE SHADOWS can be purchased in the two usual locations.

Also, if you’re a Libraria subscriber, please check your email and respond.

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GUNS OF MARS

I’m very pleased to be able to say that like Easton Press and Franklin Library before them, Castalia Library is finally in the Signed First Edition business. Over the next month, we are offering no less than THREE Signed First Editions, beginning with GUNS OF MARS by Chuck Dixon.

GUNS OF MARS: A Thrilling Return to the Red Planet

Chuck Dixon delivers a masterful homage to Edgar Rice Burroughs’s classic Barsoom series with “Guns of Mars,” a tale that captures all the adventure and wonder of the original while bringing fresh energy to the dying world of Mars.

Like Burroughs’ timeless stories, Dixon transports readers to a harsh but magnificent Barsoom where water is more precious than gold and survival depends on strength, cunning, and an unbreakable will. The novel follows the unlikely partnership between a mysterious human bounty hunter and Kal Keddaq, a fierce Warhoon thark fleeing the consequences of his own choices.

Dixon expertly recreates Burroughs’ signature blend of high adventure and exotic world-building. The Martian landscape comes alive with all its deadly beauty – from the vast canal systems of a forgotten civilization to the savage creatures that prowl the wastes. What sets GUNS OF MARS apart is Dixon’s grittier, more realistic approach to survival on the red planet. While maintaining the romantic adventure spirit of the original series, he grounds the action in believable consequences and genuine peril. The central quest drives a plot that builds to a spectacular confrontation between man, thark, and the monstrous guardians of Mars’ greatest treasure.

Dixon, known for his work on BATMAN and THE PUNISHER, brings his talent for character-driven action to create protagonists who are both heroic and deeply flawed. The evolving relationship between the bounty hunter and the exiled thark forms the emotional core of a story that honors Burroughs’ legacy while standing as a thrilling adventure in its own right.

For fans of the original Barsoom novels and newcomers alike, GUNS OF MARS offers everything that made Burroughs’s Mars irresistible: exotic locales, deadly creatures, ancient mysteries, and the kind of two-fisted adventure that belongs among the classics of planetary romance.

For more details about GUNS OF MARS, including an excerpt and information on where to buy it, visit the Castalia Library substack.

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Backing the Bindery

Now that THE ILIAD and THE ODYSSEY are ready to go to print, we’re giving everyone two weeks to become a retro-backer of the bindery before we place the order for the interiors. For more details and interior images of the two books, including the title pages, please visit the Castalia Library substack. We’re also looking into the possibility of making them signed and numbered editions, if that’s of interest. Although Homer is obviously unavailable, we could arrange for them to be signed by either a) the bookbinder or b) me, depending upon which would make these very special editions even more desirable.

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