Preparing for Leisure
The Leisure Ethic: The End of Work and a Return to Virtue By David Edward Tabachnick. Toronto University Press, 2026. Paperback, 288 pages, $39.95. Reviewed by Robert Rich. In August of 2014, the science educator and YouTuber CGP Grey made the case, in a video titled...
Michigan’s Neglected Civil War Governor
Radical of Radicals: Austin Blair—Civil War Governor—In His Own Words By Jack Dempsey. Mission Point Press, 2025. Paperback, 360 pages, $18.95. Reviewed by Miles Smith IV. In every intelligent history of the Civil War Era, the major players show up on stage, right on...
The Enduring Sources of the Permanent Things
What Really Matters: Restoring a Legacy of Faith, Freedom, and Family By Timothy S. Goeglein with Craig Osten. Fidelis Publishing, 2026. Hardcover, 264 pages, $28.00. Reviewed by Cory Andrews. In an age when so many of our inherited institutions seem to be unraveling...
Talking Classical Education
Classical Catechism Anthony Esolen. Thales Press, 2025. Paperback, 109 pages, $9.99. Reviewed by Sean Hadley. It would be a rather run-of-the-mill comment amongst any group of Christians to state that catechisms play an important role in the life of the Church....
Liberal Education and Its Critics
Liberal Education and Democracy By Bob Pepperman Taylor. Notre Dame Press, 2025. Hardcover, 208 pages, $40. Reviewed by Daniel James Sundahl. Ater an even 100 pages, Professor Taylor arrives at the conclusion to his very fine Liberal Education and Democracy. It reads...
Poetry of Transcendence
Killing Orpheus By Forester McClatchey. Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2026. Paperback, 88 pages, $20. Reviewed by Camilo Peralta. Might a revival of our degraded culture, or at least its verse, be possible? A recent collection titled Killing Orpheus from Forester...
The Consensus Reality
The Polarization Myth: America’s Surprising Consensus on Race, Schools, and Sex By Jonathan Butcher. Encounter Books, 2025. Hardcover, 248 pages, $29.99. Reviewed by Jeffrey Folks. In The Polarization Myth, Jonathan Butcher points to evidence that America is...
Britain at the Turning Point
Advance Britannia: The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1942-1945 By Alan Allport. Knopf, 2026. Hardcover, 656 pages, $40. Reviewed by John P. Rossi. Advance Britannia is the second volume of Alan Allport’s history of Britain’s role in World War II. The first...
Shakespeare Forever
Thinking Through Shakespeare By David Womersley. Princeton University Press, 2026. Hardcover, 432 pages, $35. Reviewed by Jesse Russell. In England ideas run wild and pasture on emotions; instead of thinking with our feelings (a very different thing) we corrupt our...
"In an age when so many of our inherited institutions seem to be unraveling under the pressures of a restless, self-regarding individualism, it is a rare and welcome thing to encounter a book that speaks with quiet conviction about the things that have long sustained the American
"If classical teachers believe that truth, beauty, and goodness can indeed change the world, then the sort of student (and teacher and school) described by @AnthonyEsolen is a net gain for this world. And his Classical Catechism serves as a helpful tool in building the necessary