The Roots of Recession
As an energy shock looms, a new book reframes recession as the product of historical circumstance, not cyclical inevitability.
Joel Kotkin
· 11 min read
Books
A collection of 280 posts
Statecraft and Seduction
In an excellent new biography of Rasputin, British military historian Antony Beevor argues that perception can be a more powerful shaper of world events than reality.
Ron Capshaw
· 9 min read
Apocalypse Soon?
Earth Day once helped focus public attention on real environmental problems. Today it is a festival of alarmism, misanthropy, technophobia, and moral theatrics.
Henry I. Miller
· 8 min read
Infinite Ingenuity: Andy Weir’s Optimistic Vision in ‘Project Hail Mary’
The new film 'Project Hail Mary' based on Andy Weir's bestselling novel, celebrates scientific problem-solving on a cosmic scale. There are striking parallels with David Deutsch's radical optimism.
Iona Italia
· 14 min read
Apocalypse ’92
A new account of the 1992 siege at Ruby Ridge attempts to straighten out the record and place the story in a broader political and theological context.
Ron Capshaw
· 9 min read
Love and Theft
Luc Besson’s romantic adaptation of the Dracula story owes an unacknowledged debt to Eiko Ishioka, the visionary designer of Francis Cord Coppola’s 1992 classic.
Yuki Zeman
· 11 min read
The Many Faces of Tucker Carlson
Jason Zengerle’s new book about the degradation of a once-gifted writer and broadcaster also illustrates the downward trajectory of the entire news industry during the same period.
Graham Daseler
· 14 min read
Hearts of Darkness
Laura K. Field’s smart new book takes a critical look at MAGA’s Ivy League intellectuals.
George Case
· 8 min read
Shakespeare in Love and Grief
It appears that people now find comfort in the idea that the life of even the greatest of writers is no more satisfying than their own.
Mallory Young
· 10 min read
Murder Most Foul
William J. Mann’s new book about the notorious Black Dahlia case is a valuable corrective to the cottage industry of speculative theories that proliferated after her murder in 1947.
Ron Capshaw
· 10 min read
Heir Jordan
Aaron Magid has written a timely biography of a consequential monarch.
Michael M. Rosen
· 8 min read
God of the Yawning Gaps
It’s hard to believe in God when even very bright, thoughtful people can’t come up with good reasons why you should.
Graham Daseler
· 13 min read
A Hardy Myth
A reply to Bruce Gilley.
Oliver Kamm
· 7 min read
The Women of January 6th
A new book details the conspiratorial thinking and dark histories of two Capitol rioters.
Claire Lehmann
· 7 min read
Stormclouds Over the Capitol
Mary Clare Jalonick’s oral history of the 6 January riot is an important corrective to the second Trump administration’s vandalism of the historical record.
Ron Capshaw
· 7 min read