by Casey Chalk | Sep 16, 2018
Unrequited Toil: A History of United States Slavery by Calvin Schermerhorn. Cambridge University Press, 2018. 264 pages; hardcover, $100; paperback, $25. Reviewed by Casey Chalk On a recent trip to the Tidewater region of Virginia to visit family, my appreciation for...
by Eduard Habsburg | Sep 9, 2018
Eduard Habsburg “And thou, O Wall, O sweet, O lovely Wall …” “Why are you posting pics of walls all the time? Shouldn’t we rather … you know, build bridges?” a fellow Tweeter ironically suggested after I posted the umpteenth snapshot of my walk along the Aurelian Wall...
by John Ehrett | Sep 9, 2018
When the State Meets the Street: Public Service and Moral Agency by Bernardo Zacka. Belknap Press, 2017. Hardcover, 320 pages, $35. Reviewed by John Ehrett It’s easy to view the modern administrative state as a faceless regulatory apparatus, or a lumbering...
by Stephen Schmalhofer | Sep 9, 2018
Rendez-vous with Art by Philippe de Montebello and Martin Gayford. Thames & Hudson, 2014. Hardcover, 248 pages, $35. Reviewed by Stephen Schmalhofer While his cause lingers, if Dante were to be canonized, museum patrons will have a patron saint. As tourists...
by Kyle Sammin | Sep 2, 2018
The Slaveholding Crisis: Fear of Insurrection and the Coming of the Civil War by Carl Lawrence Paulus. LSU Press, 2017. Hardcover, 328 pages, $49. Reviewed by Kyle Sammin In the teaching of American history, the United States is often portrayed as going it alone....
by James V. Schall, S. J. | Sep 2, 2018
James V. Schall, S. J. Heywood Broun’s very short story, The Fifty-First Dragon, was published in 1921 by Harcourt Brace. It concerns a medieval school for the formation of knights. Matriculating in this school is an apparently inept candidate by the ironic name of...
by David G. Bonagura, Jr. | Sep 2, 2018
How to Win an Argument: An Ancient Guide to the Art of Persuasion by Marcus Tullius Cicero, translated and edited by James M. May. Princeton University Press, 2016. Hardcover, 288 pages, $17. Reviewed by David G. Bonagura, Jr. It is no secret that American public...
by Tyler Dobbs | Aug 26, 2018
Vatican I: The Council and the Making of the Ultramontane Church by John W. O’Malley. Harvard University Press, 2018. Hardcover, 295 pages, $25. Reviewed by Tyler Dobbs After many long centuries, the papacy had finally met its end. No, we are not talking about the...
by Jeffrey Folks | Aug 26, 2018
Enlightenment Now. The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker. Viking, 2018. Hardcover, 556 pages. $35. Reviewed by Jeffrey Folks Steven Pinker’s writing is intriguing. Just about everything he says is half right and half wrong. In this and...
by Mark Judge | Aug 26, 2018
Strange Stars: How Science Fiction and Fantasy Transformed Popular Music by Jason Heller. Melville House, 2018. Hardcover, 272 pages, $27. Reviewed by Mark Judge In 1980, musician David Bowie released a new album, Scary Monsters. On the record was a song called “Ashes...
