Does Junior Know Best?

Does Junior Know Best?

The Handsome Little Cygnet By Matthew Mehan. TAN Books, 2021. Hardcover, 48 pages, $19.95. Reviewed by Esther O’Reilly Once upon a time in the city, there was a handsome little cygnet whose parents loved him very much. So begins Matthew Mehan’s newest illustrated...
Thoughtless Mechanism

Thoughtless Mechanism

Rebooting AI: Building Artificial Intelligence We Can Trust By Gary Marcus and Ernest Davis. Pantheon Books, 2019. Hardcover, 288 pages, $29. Reviewed by Nicholas Meverel Some years ago, without fanfare, the phrase “artificial intelligence” began to refer no longer to...
A Postmodern Prophet?

A Postmodern Prophet?

Myth, Meaning, and Antifragile Individualism: On the Ideas of Jordan Peterson By Marc Champagne. Societas, 2020. Paperback, 200 pages, $29. Reviewed by Nate Hochman It is impossible to understand Jordan Peterson’s incredible popularity without first understanding the...
The Girl of Slender Meanings

The Girl of Slender Meanings

Muriel Spark’s Early Fiction: Literary Subversion and Experiments with Form by James Bailey. University of Edinburgh Press, 2021. Hardback, 224 pages, $100. Reviewed by Asher Gelzer-Govatos Reading critical approaches to a favorite author can be an exercise in futile...
Town Politics

Town Politics

Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity By Charles L. Marohn Jr. Wiley, 2019. Hardcover, 256 pages, $25. Reviewed by Matthew Robare Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity is an amazing achievement by Charles L....
Breaking the Crockery

Breaking the Crockery

The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War by Louis Menand. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021. Hardcover, 857 pages $35. Reviewed by Andrew Bacevich Let us dispose of the superlatives first: In terms of both style and substance, The Free World represents an...