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From Immigrant to Public Intellectual, The Classical and Christian Origins of American Politics
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Books in Brief: February 2024

Short reviews of From Immigrant to Public Intellectual, by Murray Sabrin, and The Classical and Christian Origins of American Politics, by Kody Cooper and Justin Dyer.

Nigel Beggar, Anglican priest, theologian, ethicist
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The Empire State of Mind

Nigel Biggar's sophisticated history of British colonialism does not ignore the many benefits reaped by the recipients. His work is relevant to all Western nations, now threatened by faux radicals.

A Conservative Self-Critique
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A Conservative Self-Critique

The Up From Conservatism anthology contains some insightful, biting critiques of the conservative establishment, but its contributors are part of an elite class themselves, with their own sacred cows and taboos.

What We Are Reading: January 2024
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What We Are Reading: January 2024

Short reviews of Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism, 1933-1944, by Franz Neumann; Counter Wokecraft, by Charles Pincourt and James Lindsay; Love and the Genders by Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn; and, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson.

Books in Brief: January 2024
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Books in Brief: January 2024

Short reviews of The Making of White American Identity by Ron Everyman, The Weaponization of Loneliness by Stella Morabito, and The Significance of the German Revolution by Edgar Julius Jung.

fate, romance, Alternate Romantic Realities, Past Lives, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sliding Doors
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Alternate Romantic Realities

In Past Lives, circumstances separate two love-struck tweens but a supernatural fate reunites them. The theme disturbs the western sensibility that favors alternatives and individual autonomy.

Confessions: A Life of Failed Promises, A. N. Wilson
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A Deeper Thing Than Love

A. N. Wilson is extraordinary at discussing the faith of his many friends and acquaintances, and the religious odyssey that he presents is a joyful and hopeful one.

Prince Harming
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Prince Harming

Spare is a book of emotional spasms, broken down into bite-sized segments of staccato sentences expressing everything from extravagant griefs to lavish hatreds and saccharine love scenes, with every shade of angst, bathos, and exaltation in between.

When the Cure Is the Poison
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When the Cure Is the Poison

John Agresto is full of ideas about what needs to be done to fix the broken liberal arts tradition. Unfortunately, his proposed plan won’t work—they're too liberal.

Cuban Missile Crisis, Robert McNamara, Max Hastings
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Muddling the Missile Crisis

The Abyss, a pop history treatment of the Cuban Missile Crisis, revives unhistorical myths in an effort to chalk the whole thing up to American hysteria, and to portray the bumbling JFK as having masterfully handled the crisis.

C. Vann Woodward, New South, Old South, Jim Crow, historian
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Divided Loyalties

James Cobb admirably assesses the loyalties of C. Vann Woodward, one of the most influential historians of the 20th century, whose best-known books explored the rise of the New South and the emergence of the Jim Crow regime.

A Spark to Start a Wildfire
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A Spark to Start a Wildfire

Sound of Freedom is a beautifully crafted and passionately humane film about the darkest underbelly of contemporary life: the trafficking and sexual abuse of helpless children.

Freedom’s Penalties
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Freedom’s Penalties

In Obedience Is Freedom, Jacob Phillips illustrates how too much freedom can often mean unhappiness. Men are not made to endlessly self-create.

The Modern Myth of a Lockean Founding
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The Modern Myth of a Lockean Founding

America’s Philosopher posits that Americans in the 20th century weaponized John Locke for their own ideological ends and read Locke into the American founding. This has given Locke an outsized importance as a means to an ideological end.

What We Are Reading: August 2023
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What We Are Reading: August 2023

Immigration proponents make obvious contradictory claims. They repeat endlessly that recent immigrants are integrating just as fully as earlier immigrants did. Yet they also want to turn the idea that “America is a melting pot” into a prohibited microaggression. If it really is happening, why is it a moral crime to mention it? They lose...

Books in Brief: August 2023
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Books in Brief: August 2023

Short reviews of Danger Close! A Vietnam Memoir, by Phil Gioia, and Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet, by Marian L. Tupy and Gale L. Pooley.

Longing for the Sacred
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Longing for the Sacred

Though his portrayal of the Catholic saint is superficial at best, Padre Pio director Abel Ferrara's at least accomplish something, accidentally, by leading the film's star onto a redemptive path.

Empire’s Bloody End
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Empire’s Bloody End

In A Continent Erupts Ronald Spector analyzes the complex conflicts of East and Southeast Asia in the 10 years after the end of World War II.