Why We Want Freedom

Why We Want Freedom

Freedom: An Unruly History by Annelien de Dijn. Harvard University Press, 2020. Hardcover, 432 pages, $35. Reviewed by John G. Grove Chances are, anyone who took an introductory course in political theory learned something of the difference between “positive” and...
Thebes Gets Its Due

Thebes Gets Its Due

Thebes: The Forgotten City of Ancient Greece by Paul Cartledge. Picador Press, 2020. Hardcover, 287 pages, $30. Reviewed by Clayton Trutor Paul Cartledge makes a compelling case for the centrality of the often “forgotten” city of Thebes to the story of Ancient Greece....
Kierkegaard Is for Lovers

Kierkegaard Is for Lovers

Philosopher of the Heart: The Restless Life of Søren Kierkegaard by Clare Carlisle. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020. Hardback, 339 pages, $30. Reviewed by Asher Gelzer-Govatos It is relatively easy, if perhaps a bit crude, to draw a dividing line between two groups of...
An Ambitious Forgotten President

An Ambitious Forgotten President

President Without a Party: The Life of John Tyler by Christopher J. Leahy. Louisiana State University Press, 2020. Hardcover, 512 pages, $39.95. Reviewed by Brian Cervantez One cool February night in 1845, two weeks prior to the inauguration of recently elected...
A Plutarchian Life of Brown and Lincoln

A Plutarchian Life of Brown and Lincoln

The Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom by H. W. Brands. Doubleday, 2020. Hardcover, 464 pages, $30. Reviewed by Carl Rollyson H. W. Brands has written perhaps his most fluent book, a constantly engaging study...