An Ambitious Forgotten President
President Without a Party: The Life of John Tyler by Christopher J. Leahy. Louisiana State University Press, 2020. Hardcover, 512 pages, $39.95. Reviewed by Brian Cervantez One cool February night in 1845, two weeks prior to the inauguration of recently elected...
Beha’s Capacity for God: Sophie Wilder Revisited
What Happened to Sophie Wilder: A Novel by Christopher R. Beha. Tin House Books, 2012. Paperback, 253 pages, $16. Reviewed by Joshua Hren In his new novel The Index of Self-Destructive Acts, Harper’s editor Christopher Beha makes grace a noisome concern, not least...
A Plutarchian Life of Brown and Lincoln
The Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom by H. W. Brands. Doubleday, 2020. Hardcover, 464 pages, $30. Reviewed by Carl Rollyson H. W. Brands has written perhaps his most fluent book, a constantly engaging study...
The Clandestine Poet
In Code: Poems. by Maryann Corbett. Able Muse Press, 2020. Paperback, 92 pages, $20. Reviewed by Alfred Nicol Maryann Corbett spent thirty-five years working for the Minnesota Legislature in the Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Here is how she describes the...
The Civil Tongue
Wonder and Wrath by A. M. Juster. Paul Dry Books, 2020. Paperback, 85 pages, $14.95. Reviewed by Dan Rattelle It is difficult to imagine a more upstanding literary citizen than A. M. Juster. His work as an editor, lately of First Things and now at Plough,...
@ubookman The series seeks to advance understanding of the significance of the American founding to our times through fresh, concise presentations. The following piece by @ubookman editor @lsheahan sets the stage: https://buff.ly/Aakgs0W
Throughout the semiquincentennial year celebrating America’s independence, @ubookman will invite a range of writers and speakers to contribute to a series drawing upon Russell Kirk’s work on the American Revolution and the constitutional order it secured.