The Power of Citizens Organized

The Power of Citizens Organized

The Will of the People: The Revolutionary Birth of America by T. H. Breen. Harvard University Press, 2019. Hardcover, 272 pages, $29.95 Reviewed by Daniel James Sundahl Harlow Giles Unger’s recent biography on Thomas Paine makes the clarion call that Paine’s written...
A Sophist American Framing

A Sophist American Framing

America’s Revolutionary Mind: A Moral History of the American Revolution and the Declaration That Defined It By C. Bradley Thompson. Encounter Books, 2019. Hardcover, 461 pages, $32.99. Reviewed by Gerard T. Mundy On the fusionist political right, there are several...
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...