Books
January 28, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Edward Jay Epstein is a gifted writer and investigative journalist who has been at it now for nearly 50 years. I hope to have something on his forthcoming book — The Annals of Unsolved Crime — when it is to be published by Melville House next month. I have been a fan of Ed’s since I read Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald when it was published in
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January 16, 2013 — Scott Johnson
My 2012 book of the year is Charles Kesler’s I Am the Change: Barack Obama and the Crisis of Liberalism (along with Jean Yarbrough’s Theodore Roosevelt and the American Political Tradition). Kesler is professor of government at Claremont-McKenna College and editor of the Claremont Review of Books, the flagship publication of the Claremont Institute. Kathryn Lopez has an excellent interview with Professor Kesler posted at NRO. I recommend the whole
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January 15, 2013 — Steven Hayward
A few days ago Bill Kristol posted a reader email on the Weekly Standard blog (the first blog you should read after Power Line) about how Republicans are neglecting the lessons of Xenophon, which we linked to in our “Picks” section here. By coincidence, I begin a close reading of Xenophon’s Education of Cyrus with my Pepperdine University graduate class on political leadership this morning. The Cyropaedia, like the rest
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January 15, 2013 — Scott Johnson
We are huge fans of Stephen Hunter. Steve is of course the novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning former film critic of the Washington Post. Of Steve, Glenn Reynolds concisely holds: “Love him, and his books.” Today is the official publication date of Steve’s new Bob Lee Swagger thriller, The Third Bullet. Based on an advance copy, Richard Fernandez has already posted an astute appreciation of the novel. Steve has graciously accepted
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January 14, 2013 — Scott Johnson
At the end of his Impromptus column today, Jay Nordlinger writes: Let’s end with Yale — with the William F. Buckley, Jr., Program at Yale. The Buckley program had a conference on the last day of November….The theme of the conference was Whittaker Chambers’s great book, Witness — which was published 60 years ago. (Anniversaries are irresistible to organizers of all types.) There was a slew of top-notch speakers, including
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January 12, 2013 — Scott Johnson
In the fall of 2010 Bill Steigerwald retraced John Steinbeck’s trip around the United States as recounted in Travels With Charley. He set up a blog — Travels Without Charley — to tell the “story of the long trip [he's] been taking with John Steinbeck and his ghost.” He concluded that Steinbeck’s “book is not just full of fiction; it’s also a dishonest account of his iconic journey and what
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January 9, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Over the holidays my daughter Eliana was home poring over an advance copy of General McChrystal’s memoir, My Share of the Task, officially published this week. She found it absorbing and read it closely. On Monday she followed up with an interview of General McChrstyal. NRO has posted her column “McChrystal’s Share of the Task.” Her take on the book makes points I haven’t seen made elsewhere. I want to
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January 3, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Robert S. Wistrich is the Neuburger Professor of European and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the director of the university’s Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism. He is also probably the leading academic authority on anti-Semitism. Witness his monumental histories A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism From Antiquity to the Global Jihad and, most recently, From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, The Jews and Israel,
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December 30, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Vladimir Bukovsky is the incredibly brave Soviet dissident who spent 12 years in prison and political psychiatric hospitals before his expulsion from the Soviet Union in 1976. His memoir — To Build a Castle — one of the great documents of the era (and now out of print). Today Bukovsky turns 70. Michael Ledeen celebrates the occasion with this arresting observation: We’ve been friends for a long time, ever since
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December 27, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Reader John Lundstrom writes to add a related note to John Hinderaker’s post “Our history, andi theirs.” He writes: I’ve been a devoted reader of Power line for years and was most interested in your post. I was gratified to see your reference to the glorious First Minnesota and your citing of Wayne Jorgenson’s excellent Every Man Did His Duty. Knowing of your association with Minnesota, I take the liberty
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December 27, 2012 — Scott Johnson
I’ve struggled with my weight ever since I quit smoking thirty years ago, going up and down 30 pounds several times. All I can tell you is that it’s a helluva lot easier going up than it is coming down, though you probably already knew that. In his capacity as a general service operation, Glenn Reynolds has occasionally cited science writer Gary Taubes and linked to his book Why We
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December 22, 2012 — Scott Johnson
In Allen Drury’s Advise and Consent, the president’s left-wing nominee for Secretary of State has a secret. As a young man — echoes of the Hiss case — he was a member of a Communist cell. Leffingwell’s Communist past is a secret that must be covered up. Complications ensue, giving life to a Washington novel that is one of our favorites. Novelist Thomas Mallon renders his considered literary judgment in
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December 19, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Salman Rushdie has just published a memoir — Joseph Anton — of his life under the fatwa promulgated against him by Ayatollah Khomeni on account of Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses. I have taken my bearings on this saga from Daniel Pipes’s prescient treatment of it in The Rushdie Affair, originally published in 1990. In his rewarding New Republic review/essay, Paul Berman cites Kenin Malik’s From Fatwa to Jihad, which
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December 17, 2012 — Steven Hayward
If so, the Claremont Review of Books has got the answer for you! Just out today is the CRB’s “Claremont Christmas Reading” roundup of book suggestions from an all-star lineup including Harvey Mansfield, Larry Arnn, Hadley Arkes, Christopher Caldwell, Matthew Continetti, Wilfred McClay, and John Yoo, among others. (Others including. . . moi.) There’s one consensus pick among the assembled luminaries: it’s something about Obama and “change.” But Jean Yarbrough’s
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December 7, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Here we conclude our Christmas extravaganza previewing the Fall issue of the Claremont Review of Books. From Aristotle to affirmative action and the painful election of 2012, we have covered a lot of ground with a few highlights from a characteristically excellent and indispensable issue. Among its other highlights are our own Steve Hayward’s review of CRB editor Charles Kesler’s I Am The Change: Barack Obama and the Crisis of
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December 6, 2012 — John Hinderaker
In Episode 38, Brian Ward and I talk about cliffs, fiscal and real–Brian likened us to Thelma and Louise–and awarded our This Week In Gatekeeping prize. But most of the show was devoted to an interview with Jake Tapper, ABC News White House Correspondent and the author of The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor. I wrote about The Outpost here, when I was only half-way through it. Having
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December 6, 2012 — Scott Johnson
We continue our Christmas extravaganza previewing the Fall issue of the Claremont Review of Books through Friday. If you lean conservative and love to read about history, politics, economics, literature, culture and current events, the CRB has earned your attention. Subscriptions are available here for $19.95 (including immediate online access). Students of Winston Churchill know that Aristotle played a key role in his self-education. Churchill’s search for “a concise compendious
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