Reading books forces us to concentrate for longer periods of time than we do while sprinting from site to site online. Certain books demand the employment of certain analytical skills and close reading. But in our age of jittery distraction are readers becoming “an endangered species?” In the February 2021 issue of Chronicles: A Magazine [...]
Most of us know family members or friends who are depressed or saddened by the problems America faces today. Add to this scenario the usual holiday blues, and we have a mental health disaster in the making. We can help fight against it by spreading goodwill in whatever way we can. Not everyone has a [...]
We are not only failing to educate our young people, but we are also teaching them to despise their country. But the left immediately attacked President Trump's solution to this problem, comparing his commission on patriotic education to the indoctrination of Hitler Youth organizations in Nazi Germany. Last week my friend John was chatting with [...]
Like the abstract painters, poets abandoned form and gave themselves over to free verse. Since the close of the 20th century, however, the tide of postmodernism has turned somewhat in art and poetry. A shift back toward tradition and form is taking place. To call World War I a catastrophe for the West is akin to describing [...]
Many citizens today advocate “gun control.” If we restrict or eliminate gun ownership, their argument goes, we will reduce the number of murders. Nevertheless, the puzzle remains: Why were so few of our ancestors shooting one another when guns could be bought as easily as soap, shoes, and slipcovers? As I write these words, a [...]