Machine Future

Machine Future

Blade Runner Directed by Ridley Scott. Warner Bros. 1982. Reviewed by Titus Techera The year 2019 is the setting of the movie Blade Runner, and the year of the death of Rutger Hauer, who played its antagonist Roy Batty, offering the noblest vision of mortality in...
Xenophon’s Science of Political Economy

Xenophon’s Science of Political Economy

The Shorter Writings by Xenophon, edited by Gregory A. McBrayer. Cornell University Press, 2018. Paperback, 414 pages, $25. Reviewed by Pedro L. Gonzalez The fires of the Social War that brought the imperial power of Athens to its knees had not yet been slaked when...
Roger Scruton, RIP

Roger Scruton, RIP

By Richard Cocks With the passing of Roger Scruton his contributions to religious, political, and philosophical topics will be sorely missed. His calm, thoughtful essays and books were especially appreciated by those dissenting thinkers willing to deviate from strains...
The Patterns of Living

The Patterns of Living

Cities Alive: Jane Jacobs, Christopher Alexander, and the Roots of the New Urban Renaissance by Michael W. Mehaffy. Sustasis Press, 2017. Paperback, $20. Reviewed by Gene Callahan I first encountered the work of the great urban theorist Jane Jacobs due to the...
The Children Are in Charge

The Children Are in Charge

Campusland: A Novel by Scott Johnston. St. Martin’s Press, 2019. Hardcover, 322 pages, $28. Reviewed by Matthew Stewart Would the president of an elite university cave in to the demands of campus militants to the tune of $50 million in order to buy temporary peace? In...
Practice Makes Virtue

Practice Makes Virtue

How to Be Unlucky: Reflections on the Pursuit of Virtue by Joshua Gibbs. CiRCE Institute, 2018. Paperback, 239 pages. $16. Reviewed by Elizabeth Bittner If we were to judge a book by its cover, we would likely steer clear of Joshua Gibbs’s latest work. Titled How to...
That Sacred Canopy

That Sacred Canopy

The Free Speech Century by Lee C. Bollinger and Geoffrey R. Stone. Oxford University Press, 2019. Paperback, 376 pages, $21.95. Reviewed by Daniel James Sundahl In the final chapter to Lee Bollinger’s and Geoffrey R. Stone’s The Free Speech Century, the editors pose a...
Bair, Beauvoir, and the Becketeers

Bair, Beauvoir, and the Becketeers

Parisian Lives: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and Me: A Memoir by Deidre Bair. Nan A. Talese, 2019. Hardcover, 368 pages, $29.95. Reviewed by Michial Farmer When she set out to write her award-winning biography of Samuel Beckett, Deirdre Bair had never even read...
Poets of Brutality and Redemption

Poets of Brutality and Redemption

Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community: Eight Essays by Wendell Berry. Counterpoint [1993], 2018. Paperback, 208 pages, $18. Reviewed by Marlo Safi Today, brutality abounds. In its countless iterations, whether the brutality toward the unborn; the poor and...
Fly-Fishing and the Constitution

Fly-Fishing and the Constitution

A Republic, If You Can Keep It by Neil Gorsuch with Jane Nitze and David Feder. Crown Forum, 2019. Cloth, 352 pages, $30. Reviewed by Stephen B. Presser More than two centuries ago, Samuel Johnson made the point that there were some things that were remarkable not...