Uncommon Knowledge
May 9, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Thomas Sowell is the one and only. His most recent book of many is a revised and expanded edition of Intellectuals and Society. Peter Robinson takes the new edition of the book as an occasion to invite Sowell to return for an interview. As Peter tees up the interview, he compares and contrasts the insight of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and Ronald Reagan into the Soviet Union. Schlesinger is a stand-in
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April 11, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Charles Murray is the longtime American Enterprise Institute fellow and author of several important and controversial books, perhaps none more so than this year’s Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010. Murray sat down to discuss his new book for the current installment of Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson. Through our arrangement with the Hoover Institution, we are pleased to present this installment of the program in its entirety.
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March 28, 2012 — Scott Johnson
In this intensely interesting episode of Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson — interesting from beginning to end — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell takes a look back at the dark days of 2009 when the Democrats held 60 seats in the Senate. With that majority, the Democrats jammed Obamacare down our throats, but without a single Republican vote: Once it was clear the president was going to try to turn
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March 14, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Michael Barone is the one and only — American Enterprise Institute fellow, author, and senior political correspondent for the Washington Examinera. He is a walking encyclopedia of American political history. Barone puts his knowledge of the current scene to use in the biennial editions of the Almanac of American Politics. His interest in American political history is reflected in Our Country: THe Shaping of America From Roosevelt to Reagan. It
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March 1, 2012 — Scott Johnson
I got to know Andrew Breitbart five years ago on a whirlwind tour of Israel during which we became friends. Andrew was one of a kind, a big lovable bear of a man with the heart and soul of a warrior. His death leaves me distraught. It leaves the conservative movement, in which Andrew exerted his leadership with a convert’s zeal and a Falstaffian wit, bereft of an irreplaceable presence.
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February 29, 2012 — Scott Johnson
In the new edition of Uncommon Knowledge, Peter Robinson welcomes his Hoover Institution colleague Condoleezza Rice. It’s a suitably extended edition of the show, running over an hour, occasioned by the publication of Rice’s memoir of service in the Bush administration, No Higher Honor. I should add that in her warm family memoir, Extraordinary Ordinary People — also necessary reading — Secretary Rice recalls her parents and her upbringing in
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February 18, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Our friends at Uncommon Knowledge recorded a special edition with Newt Gingrich this week. Because of the timely nature of the interview, they requested that we make it available as soon as possible. Just one problem: they forgot to include me in their message, so we’re a tad late getting to the video. They introduce this special edition of the show as follows: The 58th Speaker of the House and
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February 8, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Jonah Goldberg is of course the columnist and founder of National Review Online. He continues to work for NR as a contributing editor and is also contributor to USA Today. He is the author of Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Change and The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas (forthcoming in May). In the current
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January 25, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Obamacare constitutes a fundamental assault on limited constitutional government. The question isn’t exactly whether it’s unconstitutional, but whether the Supreme Court can get it right given the state of the doctrines it has fashioned to accommodate liberalism in the modern era. Liberalism has done its best to abrogate the limits on limited government, and its best is probably good enough. Obamacare calls us to return to first principles. Thank you,
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January 18, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Last week we posted Peter Robinson’s terrific interview with Andrew Roberts. Given our format, the interview rotated off the site after a few days. We should have another installment of Uncommon Knowledge next week. In the meantime, here is the interview with Roberts, once more once, after a brief introduction. There are several outstanding one-volume histories of World War II. Martin Gilbert’s The Second World War: A Complete History is
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January 11, 2012 — Scott Johnson
There are several outstanding one-volume histories of World War II. Martin Gilbert’s The Second World War: A Complete History is one of them. Gerhard Weinberg’s A World At Arms: A Global History of World War II is another. With no disrespect to others left unmentioned, we can now add to this select company Andrew Roberts’s The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War. This week on
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December 18, 2011 — Scott Johnson
James Delingpole is the witty, right-minded columnist and blogger for the Telegraph. Among his several books are Obamaland: I Have Seen Your Future and It Doesn’t Work and, most recently, Watermelons: The Green Movement’s True Colors. The latter book provides the occasion for Peter Robinson’s interview with Delingpole in the latest installment of Uncommon Knowledge. Delingpole himself introduces the installment here, mostly in the form of a tribute to our
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November 30, 2011 — Scott Johnson
In the current installment of Uncommon Knowledge Peter Robinson interviews Wall Street Journal deputy editor Gerard Baker and Weekly Standard senior editor Andrew Ferguson. Baker has pursued a distinguished career as a journalist at the BBC, the Financial Times and the Times of London before undertaking his current responsibilities at the Journal. In addition to his work for the Standard, Andy also writes the Press Man column for Commentary, covering
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November 23, 2011 — Scott Johnson
Last week we posted Peter Robinson’s interview with Paul Rahe. Given our format, the interview rotated off the site after a few days. We should have another installment of Uncommon Knowledge next week. In the meantime, here is the interview with Professor Rahe, once more once, after a brief introduction. Paul Rahe is one of the country’s most distinguished scholars, but he has also proved to be a natural blogger
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November 16, 2011 — Scott Johnson
Paul A. Rahe holds the Charles O. Lee and Louise K. Lee Chair in the Western Heritage at Hillsdale College. In view of his classic three-volume study of Republics Ancient and Modern, Professor Rahe is the academy’s foremost authority on the history of republics. He is also the author, most recently, of Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and the Modern Prospect, a book that explains the deep roots
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