Counter-Tradition of the American Imagination

Counter-Tradition of the American Imagination

Geographies of Flight: Phillis Wheatley to Octavia Butler by William Merrill Decker. Northwestern University Press, 2020. Paper, 294 pages, $43. Reviewed by J. L. Wall Aboard the Arbella—or maybe in Southampton before the colonists departed for the New World—John...
Craftsmanship as Social and Political Endeavor

Craftsmanship as Social and Political Endeavor

Craft: An American History. by Glenn Adamson. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021. Hardcover, 400 pages. $22.50. Reviewed by Clayton Trutor Glenn Adamson’s new book has completely blown my mind. Like so many great works of history, Craft: An American History takes a seemingly...
Theodore Roosevelt and Statecraft for a World Power

Theodore Roosevelt and Statecraft for a World Power

First Great Triumph: How Five Americans Made Their Country a World Power By Walter Zimmerman. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002. Hardcover, 562 pages, $15. Reviewed by Jack Beyrer Teddy Roosevelt was a man so vast he contained multitudes. For progressives, the...
Diagnosing a New Despotism

Diagnosing a New Despotism

Who Rules? Sovereignty, Nationalism, and the Fate of Freedom in the Twenty-First Century. Edited by Roger Kimball. Encounter Books, 2020. Hardcover, 128 pages, $22.50 Reviewed by Jeffrey Folks Who Rules? is a valuable collection of essays by some of today’s finest...
Class Power and Cultural Blindspots

Class Power and Cultural Blindspots

The New Class War: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite by Michael Lind. Penguin, 2020. Hardcover, 193 pages, $25. Reviewed by Bruce P. Frohnen The rise of populist movements throughout the West and the intense, angry response to them from technocratic elites...