View

• View

  Remembering the Right

  By Paul Gottfried

  The featured theme of this month’s magazine is focused on a particular task, namely retrieving conservativism and conservative thinkers from the past and explaining their continued relevance to the present. The current conservative movement, as a form of media entertainment and as a partisan PR machine, has undergone sweeping change in just about every respect since the mid- and certainly early-20th century. Equally obvious has been the tendency to hurl into a bottomless memory hole provocative past thinkers, such as Southern traditionalists, localists, and military noninterventionists. Other thinkers have suffered an even more ignominious fate at the hands of Conservatism, Inc., by being transmogrified in such a way that they offer no challenge to current “conservative” agendas or media celebrities.

  Read More

• View

  Remembering Murray Rothbard

  By David Gordon

  Murray Rothbard, the principal founder of post-World War II American libertarianism, died 24 years ago. Lew Rockwell, one of Rothbard’s closest friends and the founder of the Mises Institute and LewRockwell.com, offers this description of his core ideas: "If you want to understand Murray Rothbard, you need to keep one principle in mind…Murray believed in a complete free market."

  Read More

• View

  Remembering M. E. Bradford

  By Clyde Wilson

  Anyone who met M. E. Bradford was unlikely to forget him. There was his imposing bulk and his Stetson cowboy hat, but that was just the trimming. This Oklahoman, long a fixture at the University of Dallas, radiated vast erudition, lightly worn and easily shared, often in colloquial language. He emitted goodwill and sparkling humor, fused with an antique courtly courtesy for all. Bradford was steeped in the history of Southern literature, much like Donald Davidson, the Agrarian man of letters and poet under whom he wrote his dissertation at Vanderbilt University.

  Read More

• View

  Remembering R. L. Dabney

  By Mr. Zachary Garris

  Robert Lewis Dabney was an American theologian and seminary professor. He was also a philosopher who wrote extensively on cultural and political issues of the second half of the 19th century. In our own day, when there is much confusion over what defines conservative political theory, we would do well to look to the writings of this conservative stalwart.

  Read More

• View

  The Hijacking of Nationalist Conservativism

  By Pedro Gonzalez

  The 2016 election planted a nationalistic, populist battle standard reminiscent of the one that the pitchfork-wielding legions of the Old Right had once marched beneath. Now it appears at risk of being diluted and neutralized, as populist right-wing

  Read More

Society & Culture

• Society & Culture

  Dutch Euthanasia Case Serves as Harbinger

  By Emma Freire

  In 2002 the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia, formalizing what had been tolerated by the government for several decades prior. Today, however, the Dutch practice of euthanasia is arguably less settled legally than ever before.

  Read More

• Society & Culture

  Zombie Theology

  By Jeff Anderson

  I teach theology courses at a non-denominational, evangelical Christian high school outside of Fort Worth, Texas. We study the history of the Christian faith, work our way chapter and verse through at least 15 books of the Bible over the span of our high school courses, examine all the major topics of systematic theology and comparative religion, and even take a stab at developing what I call “street level apologetics.” We learn about what Christianity is and what Christianity does, both in our individual lives and in the broader society. And we talk about zombies.

  Read More

• Society & Culture

  Between Raising Hell and Amazing Grace

  By Joshua Doggrell

  I have heard the following remark, or something similar, made about country music on numerous occasions in my life: “You know, it’s kind of hard to take a guy seriously when he sings about loving Jesus one minute and drinking and cheating the next.”

  Read More

Reviews

• Reviews

  Unending Journeys

  By Derek Turner

  Few subjects arouse such atavistic emotions as migration—whether the arrivals come as conquerors or as kin, fleeing ordeals or seeking opportunities. For incomers, migration can represent a dream, a rational choice, an urgent necessity, or a last hope. For recipient countries, it can be an infusion of energy, a reunion, a social challenge, or an existential threat. By drawing parallels between today’s immigrations and earlier upheavals, Peter Gatrell seeks to prove that modern migration is a continuation of a generations-long process, just “another iteration” rather than a replacing revolution.

  Read More

• Reviews

  Chansons by the Bayou

  By Randall Ivey

  Louisiana being the jazz capital of the United States (and the world, for that matter), one easily forgets the other contributions she has made to American culture. Then one remembers Louisiana is Walker Percy’s adopted home and the setting of his most famous novel, The Moviegoer. Perhaps the writers Ernest J. Gaines and Shirley Ann Grau also come to mind, the horror novelist Anne Rice and crime novelist James Lee Burke, and literary luminaries such as Grace King and Kate Chopin.

  Read More

• Reviews

  To Regulate, or Not to Regulate?

  By Greg Kaza

  One vocal U.S. political tribe argues vociferously that capitalism is the source of all economic problems. Another tends to ignore that the current economy is not working for all Americans. French economist Thomas Philippon’s work should interest those who aren’t satisfied with either the complaints of the left or the indifference of the right.

  Read More

Polemics & Exchanges

• Polemics & Exchanges

  An E Pluribus Reminder

  By

  It is saddening to see so distinguished an authority as Professor Stephen Presser misquote important words from the Constitution as he does in his November article on impeachment. He writes that treason is “clearly defined” in the Constitution as “making war on the United States or giving aid or comfort to her enemies.”

  Read More

Editorials

• Editorials

  What's Paleo, and What's Not

  By Paul Gottfried

  In a recent Townhall commentary, the young author Michael Malarkey marvels over “the resurgence of refined paleoconservatism.” Supposedly Donald Trump has absorbed quintessential paleoconservative positions and is now putting them into practice. This now triumphant creed is “a political stance that posits the importance of strong borders, economic protectionism, and vehement anti-interventionism.” According to Malarkey, “[Trump’s] political orientation resembles that of Patrick J. Buchanan, a wildly influential former Nixon aide…and lifelong ‘Paleocon.’”

  Read More

• Editorials

  The Groyper Rebellion

  By Edward Welsch

  In late October, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder Charlie Kirk took the stage at Ohio State University prepared to “own the libs,” as he and other establishment conservative speakers had been doing profitably on college campuses for the last two years, offering to debate all comers among the university’s typically leftist student population. Sitting in front of a backdrop emblazoned with TPUSA’s marketing phrase for that season, “Culture War: Feat. Charlie Kirk,” Kirk was well-prepared to bat down any of the typical, feeble arguments for socialism, Medicare-for-all, identity politics, or climate change. On stage with him was Rob Smith, the personification of a rebuttal to any leftist identity politics argument: black, a veteran, proudly homosexual, and a recent convert from the left. Checkmate, leftists!

  Read More

Correspondence

• Correspondence

  In Georgia, a Reminder of a Halcyon West

  By William Watkins Jr.

  Even in the beginnings of winter, Georgia’s capitol Tbilisi emits a warmth. One should expect this from a city known for its many hot springs, but the warmth experienced goes much beyond the sulfur baths popular with tourists and locals alike. Tbilisi, with its 1.4 million residents, is inviting in a way that few cities of such a size are. It is very walkable, and a stroll along Rustaveli Avenue, the main thoroughfare, reveals well-dressed men and women roaming with arms interlocked and laughing as they share a reminiscence or news of friends and family.

  Read More

• Correspondence

  The Failure of the Canadian Right

  By Mark Wegierski

  The Canadian federal election in October confirmed a long-term, leftward trend in Canadian politics. Despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s blackface scandal, the Liberals retained power, winning a plurality of 157 out of 338 seats and 33.1 percent of the popular vote. Conservatives won 121 seats (34.4 percent of the vote), gaining truly overwhelming support from Western Canada, particularly from the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

  Read More

Columns

• Columns

  Simple Answers for Hateful Minds

  By Mark G. Brennan

  When did Americans become the stormtroopers of irrational simplification? Not a moment passes when a tweet, Facebook post, or Instagram picture doesn’t rip through our amber waves of grain and drive a social justice warrior to attack the nearest deplorable. Take this recent example from The New York Times of a mentally deranged reductionist.

  Read More

• Columns

  Geostrategic Challenges in 2020

  By Srdja Trifkovic

  As we approach the last year of this century’s second decade, the United States is still the most powerful state in the world, safe from direct threats by foreign state actors. The “challenges” America faces in the year ahead are entirely dependent on the definition of her interests and on the understanding of her grand strategic objectives. In other words, they are in the eye of the beholder.

  Read More

• Columns

  Grim Foolishness

  By George McCartney

  I’ve seen only two-and-a-half Quentin Tarantino films, which seems to me one more than enough. They’re silly, trashy, and singularly devoid of amusement. Why would I see another? But when his latest, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, received enthusiastic notices elsewhere, I thought I should try it. Could I have misjudged his work? I can confidently report that my original judgment was correct.

  Read More

• Columns

  A Giant Beset by Pygmies

  By Tom Piatak

  Most newspaper and magazine articles are forgotten not long after they appear. Does anyone read the 25-year-old columns of Norman Podhoretz, William F. Buckley, or Richard John Neuhaus for insight into current events? It therefore tells us something when First Things prints a 20-page essay about a political journalist who has been dead for almost 15 years. This person, we learn, “won almost no access to major conservative outlets” in life, and indeed was “purged and marginalized.” It tells us even more when the journal running this long essay rarely agreed with the subject during his life. Thus, whatever else it may be, First Things’ lengthy essay on Sam Francis must be regarded as proof that he remains relevant to contemporary debate, and was what many readers of Chronicles knew he was: a genius.

  Read More

• Columns

  George O'Brien: American Star

  By Roger D. McGrath

  WWI veteran George O’Brien became a star in Hollywood with his breakout performance in John Ford’s silent film epic, The Iron Horse. Handsome and built like the top athlete he was, O’Brien appeared in 11 more Ford movies and 85 films altogether, a successful career punctuated by voluntary and selfless distinction in two more wars, WWII and Korea. O’Brien represented all that was best in Hollywood and in America, which perhaps explains why he is forgotten today by a different Hollywood and a different America.

  Read More

• Columns

  Time for a More Militant Church

  By Taki Theodoracopulos

  The following was recently but ecstatically pronounced by the malignant, anti-white, anti-Christian, and anti-male New York Times: “Perhaps for the first time since the United States was established, a majority of young adults here do not identify as Christian.”

  Read More