The Curse of Knowledge
A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe. Wednesday Books, 2020. Hardcover, 352 pages. $19. Reviewed by Christine Norvell Curses are too common, particularly in fairy tales. Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Puss-in-Boots. Thanks to the collections of the...
Tolkien’s Yuletide Fiction
Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien Houghton Mifflin Company, 2020. Hardcover, 208 pages, $28. Reviewed by John Tuttle The name Tolkien is first and foremost associated with what is widely acknowledged as the man’s chief literary creation, The...
The Power of Citizens Organized
The Will of the People: The Revolutionary Birth of America by T. H. Breen. Harvard University Press, 2019. Hardcover, 272 pages, $29.95 Reviewed by Daniel James Sundahl Harlow Giles Unger’s recent biography on Thomas Paine makes the clarion call that Paine’s written...
A Sophist American Framing
America’s Revolutionary Mind: A Moral History of the American Revolution and the Declaration That Defined It By C. Bradley Thompson. Encounter Books, 2019. Hardcover, 461 pages, $32.99. Reviewed by Gerard T. Mundy On the fusionist political right, there are several...
The Risks of Levity
Milan Kundera, Ambiguous Prophet Trevor C. Merrill “Those no longer able to see reality with their own eyes are equally unable to hear correctly,” writes Josef Pieper. “It is specifically the man thus impoverished who inevitably falls prey to the demagogical spells of...
Why We Want Freedom
Freedom: An Unruly History by Annelien de Dijn. Harvard University Press, 2020. Hardcover, 432 pages, $35. Reviewed by John G. Grove Chances are, anyone who took an introductory course in political theory learned something of the difference between “positive” and...
Encounter with a Real Borges
Borges and Me: An Encounter By Jay Parini. Doubleday, 2020. Hardcover, 320 pages, $27.95 Reviewed by Jerrod A. Laber We’ve all answered the question at some point about those famous individuals, dead or alive, that we would most like to have dinner with if given the...
The Ancient-Modern Quarrel over Tragedy
Tragedy, the Greeks, and Us By Simon Critchley. Vintage Books, 2020. Paperback, 322 pages. $17. Reviewed by Grant Havers The day after the passing of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965, Leo Strauss delivered a philosophical eulogy to his students, contrasting “the...
Thebes Gets Its Due
Thebes: The Forgotten City of Ancient Greece by Paul Cartledge. Picador Press, 2020. Hardcover, 287 pages, $30. Reviewed by Clayton Trutor Paul Cartledge makes a compelling case for the centrality of the often “forgotten” city of Thebes to the story of Ancient Greece....
Ah, just your typical 663-page light summer beach read for a @ubookman book review. Makes Wealth of Nations look like a Substack essay.