Sour ’68

Sour ’68

by | Dec 16, 2018

by Joseph Bottum and Justin L. Blessinger Ever feel like 2018 is 1968 come back from the grave? Hello Darkness, my old friend, Simon and Garfunkel sang in the 1960s, I’ve come to talk with you again. Fifty years on, as 2018 winds down to a sour expiration, like the...
A Plodding Penn

A Plodding Penn

by | Dec 16, 2018

William Penn: A Life Andrew R. Murphy Oxford University Press, 2018. Hardcover, 488 pages, $35. Reviewed by Carl Rollyson By the time William Penn (1644–1718) received his charter in 1681 from King Charles II for a new American colony he was already behind the times....
The Loyal Gentleman

The Loyal Gentleman

by | Dec 9, 2018

James V. Schall, S. J. “There is no substitute for strength of character, and in boys, or men, this requires two things increasingly rare in our time: knowledge of the past and a vision of the future. Of the former much has been written, and no compleat gentleman will...
When Elites Were Elites

When Elites Were Elites

by | Dec 2, 2018

The Republic of Letters by Marc Fumaroli. Yale University Press, 2018. Hardcover, 382 pages, $30. Reviewed by Addison Del Mastro The Republic of Letters is one of those fascinating history books that introduces an almost completely new element of analysis into already...
The Bloody (Congressional) Road to Disunion

The Bloody (Congressional) Road to Disunion

by | Dec 2, 2018

The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War By Joanne B. Freeman. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018. Hardcover, 480 pages, $28. Reviewed by John Bicknell One could make the case that Yale professor Joanne Freeman is obsessed with people getting...