Welcome to The Noble Polymath!  This is a site of occasional pieces of opinion and analysis.  First let’s answer the question the wife-unit first posed: what is a polymath?  A polymath is a person who knows a lot about a lot of subjects.  Leonardo Da Vinci was a polymath.  Benjamin Franklin was a polymath.

The next question: why “Noble?”  The answer is that in modern usage the term polymath has become synonymous with dilettante, a dabbler.  The polymath is in fact not a dabbler.  A polymath often suffers from a particular disorder common to bibliophiles: successive monomanias.  Were you to see my crammed bookshelves you would see evidence of successive monomanias–hundreds of volumes on the Deuteronomistic History, hundreds of volumes on the secular study of religion, hundreds on Jewish Studies, about a hundred on psychoanalysis, hundreds on international relations and grand strategy, and about a hundred on applied mathematics.

My most recent monomania is international relations and grand strategy.  It was sparked when I read a piece in the Wall Street Journal by Charles Hill extolling the virtues of the liberal arts in state craft.  I learned that Charles Hill taught in the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy at Yale University.  I looked up the program, which is a non-degree program for training diplomats and heads of state.  I found a syllabus via a Google search and over the next several years devoured the reading list, but required and recommended.  I entered a degree program in the subject this year at Troy University to put all that to use in acquiring a credential in the subject, perhaps leading to a PhD in the subject.

You will see many posts on the subject as I encounter and react to the news of the day.