Supporting Statecraft
The Secret World: A History of Intelligence by Christopher Andrew. Yale University Press, 2018. Hardcover, 960 pages, $40. Reviewed by Michael J. Ard “The further backwards you look, the further forward you can see.” This quote by Winston Churchill sums up the guiding...
Why Moral Revolutions Matter
Revolution and Resistance: Moral Revolution, Military Might, and the End of Empire by David Tucker. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016. Paperback, 152 pages, $25. Reviewed by Brian A. Smith When social scientists attempt to explain events in history, moral causes...
The Last Years of Theodore Roosevelt
TR’s Last War: Theodore Roosevelt, The Great War, and a Journey of Triumph and Tragedy by David Pietrusza. Lyons Press, 2018. Hardcover, 424 pages, $35. Reviewed by Carl Rollyson TR’s Last War is about an ex-president who believed he could not retire from history. Too...
Casting Extras in The Truman Show
The Truman Show Written by Andrew Niccol. Directed by Peter Weir. Paramount, 1998. Reviewed by Titus Techera On its twentieth anniversary, The Truman Show turns out to have been prophetic about what happens to us when we go digital. In the terms of the old world of...
The Price of the Peculiar Institution
Unrequited Toil: A History of United States Slavery by Calvin Schermerhorn. Cambridge University Press, 2018. 264 pages; hardcover, $100; paperback, $25. Reviewed by Casey Chalk On a recent trip to the Tidewater region of Virginia to visit family, my appreciation for...
Ancient Walls and New Bridges
Eduard Habsburg “And thou, O Wall, O sweet, O lovely Wall …” “Why are you posting pics of walls all the time? Shouldn’t we rather … you know, build bridges?” a fellow Tweeter ironically suggested after I posted the umpteenth snapshot of my walk along the Aurelian Wall...
Can Bureaucrats Be Virtuous?
When the State Meets the Street: Public Service and Moral Agency by Bernardo Zacka. Belknap Press, 2017. Hardcover, 320 pages, $35. Reviewed by John Ehrett It’s easy to view the modern administrative state as a faceless regulatory apparatus, or a lumbering...
A Rewarding Experience Awaits
Rendez-vous with Art by Philippe de Montebello and Martin Gayford. Thames & Hudson, 2014. Hardcover, 248 pages, $35. Reviewed by Stephen Schmalhofer While his cause lingers, if Dante were to be canonized, museum patrons will have a patron saint. As tourists...
Haiti’s Role in the American Civil War
The Slaveholding Crisis: Fear of Insurrection and the Coming of the Civil War by Carl Lawrence Paulus. LSU Press, 2017. Hardcover, 328 pages, $49. Reviewed by Kyle Sammin In the teaching of American history, the United States is often portrayed as going it alone....
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!