Joseph Kennedy, American Fascist
The Ambassador: Joseph P. Kennedy at the Court of St. James 1938–1940 by Susan Ronald. St. Martin’s Press, 2021. Hardcover, 464 pages, $30. Reviewed by Carl Rollyson In this meticulous, relentless biography, Joseph P. Kennedy is now firmly established in the annals of...
The Jeffersonian Judge
Irreconcilable Founders: Spencer Roane, John Marshall, and the Nature of America’s Constitutional Republic By David Johnson. LSU Press, 2021 Hardcover, 256 pages, $45. Reviewed by John Grove There is nothing new under the sun, and that certainly applies to modern-day...
Beyond Black and White
The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright. Library of America, 2021. Hardcover, 240 pages, $23. Reviewed by James E. Hartley Richard Wright’s most recently published novel is a cause célèbre. The Man Who Lived Underground, originally written in 1941, was...
The Last Honest Pagan
Far from Respectable: Dave Hickey and His Art by Daniel Oppenheimer. University of Texas Press, 2021 Hardcover, 152 pages, $24.95. Reviewed by Scott Beauchamp “The pagan set out, with admirable sense, to enjoy himself. By the end of his civilization he had discovered...
Geopolitics in a Godless Age
Political Theology of International Order by William Bain. Oxford University Press, 2020. Hardcover, 272 pages, $85. Reviewed by John Ehrett Few academic fields today feel more unabashedly secular than international relations. Traditionally, the major division in the...
Jeanne Demessieux: A Great Organist’s Centenary
By Robert James Stove What makes organists tick? Denis Arnold (1926–1986), British biographer of Bach and Monteverdi, thought that he knew. In 1983 he remarked: “Organists have to be neat men: their mistakes do not, like a doctor’s, quietly die, but are all too...
Can Progressivism Be Reversed?
America Transformed: The Rise and Legacy of American Progressivism by Ronald J. Pestritto. Encounter Books, 2021. Hardcover, 288 pages, $29. Reviewed by John C. Chalberg If Ronald Pestritto is right, then Barack Obama was wrong. Recall candidate Obama’s now famous (or...
Death and the Catholic Imagination
Thirst: A Novel by A. G. Mojtabai. Slant, 2021. Hardcover, 141 pages, $25. Reviewed by Jeffrey Wald The reality of death, and what happens thereafter, has long captured the human imagination. One thinks of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, or Homer’s descriptions of...
A Puzzle-Box Book
The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan translated by Yuri Machkasov Amazon Crossing, 2017. Paperback, 732 pages, $15.95. Reviewed by Eve Tushnet “… The House demands a reverent attitude. A sense of mystery. Respect and awe. It can accept you or not, shower you with gifts...
Timely, for sure. Hope @realdonaldtrump is reading.