The Flowering of Legal Cynicism
More than one commentator has noted that the majority decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, requiring states to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, actually was decades in the making. No-fault divorce and our culture of sexual promiscuity, separating sex and even...Et in Academia, Ego
Bradstreet Gate: A Novel by Robin Kirman. Crown, 2015. Hardcover, 320 pages, $26.Death and defeat haunt the college novel. College novels—whether they focus on students or professors—typically tell a story in which the shining promises of academia prove not only false...Chaos and Choices
An interview with C. A. HigginsThe Bookman recently spoke with C. A. Higgins, author of the science fiction novel Lightless, which is being released by Del Rey at the end of September 2015. Ms. Higgins holds an undergraduate degree in physics from Cornell and now...On Not Being Boring
Acedia and its Discontents: Metaphysical Boredom in an Empire of Desire by R. J. Snell. Angelico Press, 2015. Paperback, 144 pages, $15.R. J. Snell has written a substantial and illuminating book, using the ancient concept of the vice of acedia (spiritual or...Re-introducing Japan’s Conservatives
Japan’s Love-Hate Relationship with the West by Hirakawa Sukehiro. Global Oriental (Kent, UK), 2005. Hardcover, 400 pages, $90. Conservatives are often portrayed as an insular lot. Blinded by tradition and preternaturally bigoted in constitution, so goes the standard...‘Et tu, Brute?’
Julius Caesar was killed on the famous Ides of March, the fifteenth of that month, 44 B.C. The murder took place in the Senate, then meeting in the Theater of Pompey. Caesar had acquired dictatorial powers. Technically, the office of “dictator” was a legal one. It was...Complicating the Nixon Story
The President and the Apprentice: Eisenhower and Nixon, 1952–1961 by Irwin F. Gellman. Yale University Press, 2015. Hardcover, 791 pages, $40.The historical demonization of Richard Nixon usually proceeds from his supposedly red-baiting campaigns for the House and...Who Governs the World?
Chi governa il mondo? by Sabino Cassese. Bologna: il Mulino, 2013. Paperback, 138 pages, $21.57. English edition: The Global Polity: Global Dimensions of Democracy and the Rule of Law. Sevilla: Global Law Press/Editorial Derecho Global, 2012. Etext, free.“‘Who gave...A Terrible Beauty
Displacement by Derek Turner. Endeavour Press, 2015. E-book, 1054 Kb, $3. The huge majority of novelists who set themselves up as radicals are really anything but. It’s been observed that, with authors like Nabokov, the last literary taboos were broken, and all...
Kirk saw poetry, fiction, tradition, and restraint as essential to understanding America and preserving its character. In his review of "On America," @cjscalia explores Kirk’s vision of the founding, statesmanship, literature, and the enduring ideas that have shaped the republic.