The Grandiose Moralist

The Grandiose Moralist

The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life by David Brooks. Random House, 2019. Hardcover, 384 pages, $28. Reviewed by Paul Brian David Brooks has a new book full of old ideas—and a lot of self-righteous platitudes thrown in for good measure. The Second Mountain...
The Six Communal Institutions and the Modern Economy

The Six Communal Institutions and the Modern Economy

Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain by James Bloodworth. Atlantic Books, 2019. paperback, 288 pages, $16. By Gerard T. Mundy Communal institutions keep the classical liberal–free market state from implosion. As the strength of what this essay identifies...
The Loyalist Arguments

The Loyalist Arguments

God against the Revolution: The Loyalist Clergy’s Case against the American Revolution by Gregg L. Frazer. University Press of Kansas, 2018. Hardcover, 320 pages, $35. Reviewed by William Anthony Hay Historians over recent decades have put considerable effort...
The Revolution is Still Permanent

The Revolution is Still Permanent

Permanent Revolution: The Reformation and the Illiberal Roots of Liberalism by James Simpson. Belknap Press, 2019. Hardcover, 464 pages, $35. Reviewed by Micah Meadowcroft For those who can competently read it’s a regrettable feature of life that the interpolation of...
Americans’ Dignity, and the Nation’s Shame

Americans’ Dignity, and the Nation’s Shame

Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America by Chris Arnade. Sentinel, 2019. Hardcover, 304 pages, $30. Reviewed by Addison Del Mastro It is an understatement to say that Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America, is an important book: it is a must-read. And the...
The Third Tolkien on View

The Third Tolkien on View

By Michael Toscano When Mabel Tolkien died on November 14, 1904, in a diabetic coma, her two sons, Ronald and Hilary, twelve and ten years of age, were passed to the legal guardianship of Fr. Francis Xavier Morgan, a priest of the Birmingham Oratory, founded less than...