This morning we continue our preview of the new (fall) issue of the Claremont Review of Books. The issue is characteristically chock full of excellent reviews and essays by prominent scholars. If you love to read and if you lean conservative, it is tailor-made for you. There is no other publication like it. A subscription to the CRB costs less that $20 a year. Subscribe here and get immediate online access to the entire issue thrown in.
In this issue, CRB associate editor Kathleen Arnn turns her attention to the Boy Scouts. The Boy Scouts of America turned 100 years old last year, and this year is the centennial anniversary of their first official handbook. In “Scouts’ honor,” Ms. Arnn explores the original Handbook for Boys and compares it to the edition Scouts use today. You will find in both essential wilderness skills: tips for fending off wild animals, identifying trees and wildlife, and navigating through the brush.
But on character development, an essential component of Boy Scout training, the books are very different. Where the old handbook recommends boyish adventurousness and old-fashioned self sufficiency, the new handbook is worried and cautious. What does this mean for the Boy Scouts, and for the American boys they are educating?
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