A Great Yarn
From Fire, by Water: My Journey to the Catholic Faithby Sohrab Ahmari. Ignatius Press, 2019. Hardcover, 240 pages, $23. Reviewed by Matthew Hennessey If you’re going to write a book about your religious conversion it’d better be a great yarn. And if you’re going to...
Tension and Freedom for Catholics in Britain
The King and the Catholics: England, Ireland, and the Fight for Religious Freedom, 1780–1829 by Antonia Fraser. Nan A. Talese, 2018. Hardcover, 336 pages, $30. Reviewed by William Anthony Hay Often the most contentious political issues of one era cease being issues at...
On Fascists and Anti-Fascists in Spain
Varela: El general antifascista de Franco by Federico Martínez Roda. La Esfera de los Libros, S.L., 2012. Paperback, $41. Reviewed by Alberto M. Fernandez Fascism is in the air in Spain. Actual fascists seem hard to find but you wouldn’t know it from the political...
Catholics and America: A Question of Loyalty
The Catholic Writings of Orestes Brownson Edited by Michael P. Federici. University of Notre Dame Press, 2018. Hardcover, 452 pages, $70. Reviewed by Richard M. Reinsch II A question that most had thought long answered has returned to stir and prick the conscience of...
A Slight and Dismal Cachet
Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey by Mark Dery. Little, Brown and Company, 2018. Hardcover, 512 pages, $35. Reviewed by Eve Tushnet Many years ago I saw an obituary notice in the local gay newspaper. Above a desolate,...
A New Dracula
A Bloody Habit: A Novel by Eleanor Bourg Nicholson. Ignatius Press, 2018. Paperback, 435 pages, $19. Reviewed by Matthew M. Robare Stop me if you’ve heard this one: while traveling through central Europe, a modern English lawyer gets entangled in the machinations of a...
Originalism and the Individual Jurist
by Caleb Stegall Editor’s Note: The following lecture was delivered in May of 2018 at the Russell Kirk Center as the keynote address at the annual conference of the Society for Law & Culture. Thank you all for being here. It’s an honor and privilege to be with...
The Habit of Being a Catholic Writer
The Letters of Flannery O’Connor and Caroline Gordon, edited by Christine Flanagan. The University of Georgia Press, 2018. Hardcover, 254 pages, $32.95 Reviewed by Emina Melonic “This girl is a real novelist,” said Caroline Gordon in a letter to Robert...
All the History That Fits a Narrative
The Final Act: The Helsinki Accords and the Transformation of the Cold War by Michael Cotey Morgan, Princeton University Press, 2018. Hardcover, 424 pages, $35. Reviewed by Francis P. Sempa People have a tendency, when they expend much time and energy working on a...
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