Enlisting in Meaning
Did You Kill Anyone? Reunderstanding My Military Experience As A Critique of Modern Culture by Scott Beauchamp Zero Books, 2020. Paperback, 144 pages, $17. Reviewed by Anthony M. Barr The first time I considered enlisting in the U.S. Navy, I was eighteen years old,...
Language, Chance, and Science
The Language Hoax: Why the World Looks the Same in Any Language by John H. McWhorter. Oxford University Press, 2016. Hardcover, 208 pages, $20. Reviewed by Gene Callahan John H. McWhorter is a linguist at Columbia University, and a fascinating and sometimes...
History’s Untouchables
Who, or What, Dropped the Atom Bombs? Bridging the Atomic Divide: Debating Japan–U.S. Attitudes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by Harry Wray and Seishiro Sugihara. Lexington Books, 2019. Hardcover, 340 pages, $115. Resurrecting Nagasaki: Reconstruction and the Formation of...
Good Taste May Save the World
Aesthetics: Volume I by Dietrich von Hildebrand. Hildebrand Press, 2016. Paperback, 508 pages, $20. Aesthetics: Volume II by Dietrich von Hildebrand Hildebrand Press, 2019. Paperback, 608 pages. $20. Reviewed by Andrew Thompson-Briggs One of the rituals peculiar to...
The Tragedy of American Parenting
Toy Story 4 Directed by Josh Cooley. Pixar Animation Studios, 2019. Reviewed by Titus Techera After a fairly disappointing season, the movies got back to the magic that audiences still crave, with what looks to be the family movie of the year. Toy Story 4 is the end...
A Timeless History of Public Education
Democracy’s Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America by Johann N. Neem. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017. Hardcover, 256 pages, $55. Reviewed by Addison Del Mastro Democracy’s Schools is written by Johann Neem, an Indian immigrant brought to America as a...
Natural Law Globalism
Tanaka Kōtarō and World Law: Rethinking the Natural Law Outside the West by Kevin M. Doak. Palgrave Pivot, 2019. Hardcover, 127 pages, $67. Reviewed by Jason Morgan The word “globalism” has become a—perhaps the—shibboleth of our age. Whatever the issue, globalism is...
A Bishop in France’s Public Square
Construisons-nous une société humaine ou inhumaine? By Michel Aupetit. Editions du Moulin, 2016. Softcover, 125 pages, €10. Reviewed by Samuel Gregg When the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris was engulfed by flames on 15 April 2019, one man emerged as the face of French...
The Function of Criticism in a Time of Entropy
American Audacity: In Defense of Literary Daring By William Giraldi. Liveright, 2018. Hardcover, 462 pages, $30. Reviewed by Oliver Spivey William Giraldi, author of the critical prose collected in American Audacity: In Defense of Literary Daring, is that rarest of...
There are metaphorical hills on which I would be willing to die. The Oxford comma is one of them.
So easy to forget that the best way to educate yourself is to read great works of literature and philosophy, then talk about them. Bring back the salon!