Forming the American Imagination
The American Book of Fables By Matthew Mehan. Sophia Institute Press, 2026. Hardcover, 396 pages, $39.95. Reviewed by Shaun Rieley. “If a man were permitted to make all the ballads,” wrote eighteenth-century Scottish political theorist Andrew Fletcher, “he need not...
Rural America as It Really Is
Faith, Family, and Flag: Branson Entertainment and the Idea of America By Joanna Dee Das. University of Chicago Press, 2025. Hardcover, 272 pages, $27.50. Reviewed by Jason C. Phillips. Over the last eighteen months, I have twice visited Branson, Missouri. Over the...
A Liberal Who Met the Cancel Mob
The New Dark Age: Why Liberals Must Win the Culture Wars By Nigel Biggar. Polity Press, 2026. Hardcover, 192 pages, $25.00. Reviewed by Gene Callahan. Nigel Biggar did not join the culture wars voluntarily: the culture wars came for him. He opens his new book with a...
A Problem Deeper than Groupthink
Seeking Truth and Speaking Truth: Law and Morality in Our Cultural Moment By Robert P. George. Encounter Books, 2025. Hardcover, 414 pages, $34.99. Reviewed by R. McKay Stangler. The first question, and perhaps the most pressing one when reviewing a book by Robert P....
Decades ago, Robert Nisbet anticipated many of today’s concerns about loneliness, bureaucracy, and declining community. Luke C. Sheahan (@lsheahan) revisits the ideas behind those warnings and their relevance today.
Questions about first principles have become fashionable again. @HorcherF and @DanJTPitt apply generosity to smooth contention between intellectuals and politicians, they embrace the tension between theory and practice, and they highlight the power of particularity as a source of