Originalism on American Terms
America on Trial: A Defense of the Founding by Robert R. Reilly. Ignatius Press, 2020. Hardcover, 384 pages, $28. Originalism’s Promise: A Natural Law Account of the American Constitution by Lee J. Strang. Cambridge University Press, 2019. Paperback, 326 pages, $35....
Balzac: The Man for My Thirties?
By Jeffrey Wald I have come to realize that a writer has indelibly marked each decade of my life. In my first decade of life, that author was Franklin Dixon. All right, I understand that “Franklin W. Dixon,” the author of Hardy Boys, was a pen name used by multiple...
A Prodigal Search for Self and the South
Where I Come From: Stories from the Deep South By Rick Bragg. Knopf, 2020. Hardcover, 256 pages, $26.95 Reviewed by Owen Edwards Where I Come From by Rick Bragg was published a few months before Uprooted by Grace Olmstead, and has strong resonances with it. Bragg’s...
A Crisis and the Heroic March of Medicine
The Great War and the Birth of Modern Medicine: A History by Thomas Helling, M.D. Pegasus Books, 2022. Hardcover, 496 pages, $32. Reviewed by Karl C. Shaffenburg The inscription on Dr. Thomas Helling’s book, The Great War and the Birth of Modern Medicine: A History...
Scruton Makes His Case
Against the Tide: The Best of Roger Scruton’s Columns, Commentaries, and Criticism Edited by Mark Dooley. Bloomsbury Continuum, 2022. Hardcover, 256 pages, $28. Reviewed by John G. Grove How should the conservative respond to a time in which so much seems to be lost?...
A Cryptic Prophecy for the Information Age
Life After Google: The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy by George Gilder. Regnery, 2018. Paperback, 256 pages, $17. Reviewed by Auguste Meyrat Although it seems like ages ago, there was a time when the internet was a fun and exciting place. Like...
Back to the Pro-Life Future
Defenders of the Unborn: The Pro-Life Movement Before Roe v. Wade by Daniel K. Williams. Oxford University Press, 2016. Hardcover, 380 pages, $35.95. Reviewed by David G. Bonagura, Jr. “Before you know it,” commented NARAL president Lee Gilding in 1973, days after the...
Only the Lover Writes
Contemplative Realism: A Theological-Aesthetical Manifesto by Joshua Hren. Benedict XVI Institute, 2022. Hardcover, 65 pages, $13. Reviewed by John-Paul Heil Transcontinental voyages provide fecund soil for the seeds of self-reflection. On one such journey, returning...
The Odyssey of ‘The Godfather’
Leave The Gun, Take the Cannoli: The Epic Story of the Making of the Godfather By Mark Seal. Gallery Books, 2021. Hardback, 448 pages, $29. Reviewed by Paul Krause I believe in the Godfather. Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather is, possibly, my favorite film. I say...
Ah, just your typical 663-page light summer beach read for a @ubookman book review. Makes Wealth of Nations look like a Substack essay.