Niebuhr on the Crisis of Our Civilization

Niebuhr on the Crisis of Our Civilization

By Francis P. Sempa Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) was both a theologian (teaching at Union Theological Seminary for over thirty years) and a public intellectual. The American diplomat and realist historian George F. Kennan called Niebuhr “the father of us all,” meaning...
A Syrian Islamist Reads Arabic Literature for the First Time

A Syrian Islamist Reads Arabic Literature for the First Time

By Sam Sweeney On January 31, 2020 the French government arrested a Syrian known as Islam Alloush, real name Majdi Nema, which caused a bit of a stir among those who had paid close attention to Syria over the last decade. Alloush was previously the spokesman for Jaysh...
Feudalism Without a Soul

Feudalism Without a Soul

The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class by Joel Kotkin. Encounter Books, 2020. Hardcover, 288 pages, $29. Reviewed by Casey Chalk Perhaps one of the great cons of the twenty-first century has been corporate America’s success in deceiving...
Quasi-Religious Parenting

Quasi-Religious Parenting

Religious Parenting: Transmitting Faith and Values in Contemporary America by Christian Smith, Bridget Ritz, and Michael Rotolo. Princeton University Press, 2019. Hardcover, 312 pages, $35. Reviewed by Melissa Langsam Braunstein Nearly a decade ago, long before I was...
Feudalism Without a Soul

The Never-Ending Threat of Utopia

The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class by Joel Kotkin. Encounter Books, 2020. Hardcover, 288 pages, $29. Reviewed by Robert Grant Price Feudal times are here again. This is a thesis Joel Kotkin hammers to a fine point in The Coming of...
The President’s Hidden Hand

The President’s Hidden Hand

Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins by Annie Jacobsen. Back Bay Books, 2019. Paperback, 560 pages, $19. Reviewed by Michael J. Ard Is lethal covert action compatible with American democracy?...