Mistaking Defeat for Victory?

Defending Faith: The Politics of the Christian Conservative Legal Movement by Daniel Bennett. University Press of Kansas, 2017. Hardcover, 224 pages, $35.One of the most compelling features of Daniel Bennett’s recent book, Defending Faith: The Politics of the...

The High Price of Duty

The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics by Mark Lilla. HarperCollins, 2017. Hardcover, 143 pages, $25.The publishing logic behind The Once and Future Liberal is impeccable. Defeated and divided after the 2016 election, liberals urgently asked themselves...

The Problem with Liberalism

The Retreat of Western Liberalism by Edward Luce. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2017. Hardcover, 226 pages, $24. Can liberals save liberalism “from itself?” Edward Luce offers this question in his new book The Retreat of Western Liberalism, but situates it as part of an...

What Happened to Blackford Oakes?

A Man and His Presidents: The Political Odyssey of William F. Buckley Jr. by Alvin S. Felzenberg. Yale University Press, 2017. Hardcover, 417 pages, $35. Reviewed by William F. Meehan III Of the memorable lines about William F. Buckley Jr., spoken on the occasion of...

William F. Buckley, Jr. and His Presidents

A Man and His Presidents: The Political Odyssey of William F. Buckley Jr. by Alvin S. Felzenberg. Yale University Press, 2017. Hardcover, 417 pages, $35. What more can possibly be said of William F. Buckley, Jr. that he or his biographers have not already said or...

Remember the Walking Dead

The Dead March: A History of the Mexican-American War by Peter Guardino. Harvard University Press, 2017. Hardcover, 512 pages, $40.The Mexican-American War (1846–1848) is one of the least-remembered conflicts in American history despite being one of the most...