The Enlightenment That Failed: Ideas, Revolution, and Democratic Defeat, 1748–1830 by Jonathan I. Israel. Oxford University Press, 2020. Hardcover, 942 pages, $45. Reviewed by Luke Nicastro To commemorate the second anniversary of the Bastille’s seizure, in July of...
The Lives of the Constitution: Ten Exceptional Minds that Shaped America’s Supreme Law by Joseph Tartakovsky. Encounter Books, 2019. Hardcover, 320 pages, $26. Reviewed by Jeffrey J. Folks Joseph Tartakovsky’s Lives of the Constitution: Ten Exceptional Minds that...
Building America: The Life of Benjamin Henry Latrobe by Jean H. Baker. Oxford University Press, 2020. Hardcover, 304 pages, $35. Reviewed by Addison Del Mastro Benjamin Henry Latrobe is, in two ways, not Pierre L’Enfant—he was not, despite his surname, French; and he...
The Volunteer: One Man, an Underground Army, and the Secret Mission to Destroy Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather. Custom House, 2019. Hardcover, 528 pages, $29. Reviewed by Joseph Barnas If you have heard of Witold Pilecki, odds are you know him as “the man who...
Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy By Matt Stoller. Simon & Schuster, 2019. Hardcover, 608 pages, $30. Reviewed by Andrew R. Kloster Framing political debates today is nearly impossible. It is beyond debate at this point that our...
Kirk saw poetry, fiction, tradition, and restraint as essential to understanding America and preserving its character. In his review of "On America," @cjscalia explores Kirk’s vision of the founding, statesmanship, literature, and the enduring ideas that have shaped the republic.