Always seeking a perch somewhere just slightly to the right of center, Senator David Durenberger regarded government as a problem-solver of something other than the first resort. Today he is not so sure. When Republicans Were Progressive, by Dave Durenberger (296 pages, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2018) Long before the country was divided into blue [...]
In “My Name is Lazarus,” a collection of thirty-four essays by thirty-four Chesterton-influenced converts, Dale Ahlquist presents us with a compelling anthology of personal redemption stories. Each tells a story that hits home—probably because each tells a story of coming home. My Name is Lazarus: 34 Stories of Converts Whose Path to Rome Was Paved [...]
Victor Davis Hanson is surely convinced that the Trump presidency has been, by and large, a good and necessary thing for America. But whether or not a Trump presidency will turn out to be a good thing for one Donald J. Trump is another matter entirely. The Case for Trump, by Victor Davis Hanson (400 [...]
In the name of progress, what other pieces of history will have to be wiped out? Lacking—here in the North—both statues to topple and a Calhoun to castigate, what can we do to get with the march of history? Or should that be the march against history? Or the march to eliminate history? Tucked up [...]
If James K. Polk can be credited with adding a huge swath of territory to the American empire, might Donald Trump one day be credited with preserving that long ago victory by reversing the gradual makeover of the southwestern United States? The game of presidential parallels can be endlessly fascinating. Sometimes it can also be [...]
While the evolution of collegiate football was gradual, its rise in popularity was quite sudden—and it all began with Walter Camp, consummate Yale man and watch company executive. Minneapolis lawyer Roger Tamte has now given us the definitive Camp biography… Walter Camp and the Creation of American Football by Roger R. Tamte (408 pages, University of [...]
Heather Mac Donald has written a no-holds-barred attack on the modern American university, where the absence of courage is only the tip of a very large and menacing iceberg… The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture by Heather Mac Donald (288 pages, St. Martin’s Press, 2018) This is [...]
So the Bob Woodward has done it again. He has concocted yet another tell-all account of the mostly forgettable doings of yet another set of temporarily memorable Washington figures. And once again he has done so on the basis of unnamed sources. It’s all so tiresome and predictable. What was neither tiresome nor predictable was the work of [...]
On airplanes my druthers is to mind my own business. I don’t want to be rude, but I much prefer reading to chatting. And that’s precisely what I did for almost the entirety of a recent flight. Nothing out of the ordinary here. It’s my usual pattern. And it generally works, especially if one avoids small talk right [...]
Why doesn’t the United States do what Europe does when it comes to students and college? Why isn’t a college education free? Fall is here. That means many things are on their way down, including bank accounts as parents write tuition checks. Is anything going up? Maybe interest in “free” college. How often are we [...]
The next time someone tells you that reactionaries and other assorted defenders of the family and private property do not care about the poor, invite them to read G.K. Chesterton’s final words in What’s Wrong with the World… A man of great good cheer, G. K. Chesterton was well known for his sunny disposition and [...]
July 4th has come and gone. So have the accompanying picnics, parades, and fireworks. That includes fireworks of more than one variety. After all, the Fourth of July can also be an occasion for hot debate well before the sun goes down. Here’s one that fits with the Fourth—and beyond: Is there such a thing [...]
Jonah Goldberg terms a “miracle” the great wealth that has been produced by the West since the middle of the eighteenth century. But will the miracle that is the West give way to the suicide of the West? Ah, that is the question he attempts to answer in his new book… Suicide of the West: How [...]
With the Trump presidency now well underway, an inescapable historical irony deserves to be noted. If there was a time in our history—and there was—when progressivism bested populism, this is a moment when populism has returned the favor. To be sure, the populism of today is not exactly the same version of populism that the [...]