Books
October 16, 2020 — Scott Johnson
We wind up our preview of the new (Fall) issue of the Claremont Review of Books with this bonus edition featuring our own Steve Hayward’s review of Charles Moore’s three-volume biography of Margaret Thatcher. Steve’s review is “A towering achievement.” As the author of his two-volume history The Age of Reagan, Steve is well equipped to take the measure of Moore’s work. Reflecting his view that biography is a neglected
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October 15, 2020 — Scott Johnson
The story of what appears to be Hunter Biden’s abandoned computer sounds like it comes out of the twisted minds of the Coen brothers (see, for example, their black comedy Burn After Reading). Emails on the allegedly abandoned computer flesh out the story of Biden family corruption that extends from Hunter Biden to the old man who has half a mind to be president. The New York Post has the
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October 15, 2020 — Scott Johnson
We are winding down our preview of the new (Fall) issue of the Claremont Review of Books with our friend Tevi Troy’s review of Craig Fehrman’s Author In Chief: The Untold Story or our Presidents and the Books They Wrote. The review is short. It is educational. It is entertaining. It even made me laugh: “Ronald Reagan left office as a popular president beloved by his supporters. Yet he phoned
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October 13, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Richard Nixon had a great line that he incorporated into his stump speech during the 1968 presidential campaign: “Ramsey Clark is a conscientious objector in the war against crime.” Now time has withered its biting wit. If you didn’t live through the ’60s, the line requires historical footnotes to be understood. (My teacher Jeffrey Hart recalled his contribution to the speech in this 1997 interview.) Along comes Amity Shlaes with
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October 12, 2020 — Scott Johnson
The Claremont Review of Books has just published its new (Fall) issue. Thanks to the editors, I reviewed the issue in galley to pick out four or five pieces to roll out for Power Line readers this week. As always, I encourage readers to become subscribers (subscribe here) for the absurdly low price of $19.95 and get online access thrown in for free. We led off our preview of the
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October 6, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Keith Korman is a literary agent and novelist. Author Winston Groom was one of his clients. When Groom died on September 17, we briefly posted the New York Times obituary in our Picks. Mr. Korman wrote us to recommend the obituary by Mark Hughes Cobb in the Tuscaloosa News as being truer to the man. I asked Mr. Korman if he would write up his own remembrance of Groom for
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October 1, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Reporting on Minnesota’s ethically challenged Rep. Ilhan Omar over the past four years, I came to the conclusion that she is heedless of the laws and rules that apply to mere mortals. She views herself as immune from them and so far she has proven right. In December 2019 Omar reportedly received a substantial cash advance — Forbes pegged it in a range from $100,00 to $250,000, although I was
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September 28, 2020 — Steven Hayward
We’re delighted to bring Scott Yenor to the show this week to discuss his important new book, The Recovery of Family Life: Exposing the Limits of Modern Ideologies, which is being officially released tomorrow from Baylor University Press. Unlike many other fine books on the family today that rely chiefly on social science, Scott brings his immense learning in political philosophy to bear on family questions, from Plato and Aristotle through
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September 19, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Is there room for another book on the rural voters who delivered the surprising outcome of the 2016 election? Yes, there is, when the book is Trump’s Democrats, by Stephanie Muravchik and Jon A. Shields, just out from the Brookings Institution. Muravchik and Shields do something unusual in this book; rather than do yet another excursion into survey data and statistical mumbo-jumbo, they went out to three diverse areas where
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September 13, 2020 — Scott Johnson
I still have my old copy of Quotations From Chairman LBJ. The book was inspired by Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung (“the little red book”). Compiled by Jack Shepherd and Christopher Wren and published by Schuster in the annus horribilis of 1968, the book consisted of supposedly laughable quotes uttered by President Johnson. It was popular enough to go through multiple printings. My copy derives from the third printing. Despite
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September 12, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Well now we’ve done it! This week Lucretia and I decided to take a break from downing whisky shots over the latest crazy news headlines and drag listeners back into the classroom for a new mini-series. I get lots of emails and comments from listeners and readers about why we surrender the term “liberal” to deep leftists who are profoundly illiberal. It’s a great question, and so Lucretia and I
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September 9, 2020 — Scott Johnson
The 2009 award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama for approximately nothing was a joke, but it had already long since become a joke. In 2009 Obama was walking in the footsteps of Rigoberta Menchú Tum (1992) and Yasser Arafat (1994), among others. For his facilitation of the peace agreement between Israel and the UAE, however, Donald Trump is actually deserving of the award as it is traditionally
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September 5, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Well I’m finally finished with my jury service on a grueling four-week criminal trial (perhaps I’ll write about it later—it was quite something), so I’m back with our regular long-form interviews. And look for another Three Whisky Happy Hour, Special Labor Day edition on Monday. Today is the 4th anniversary of the appearance of one of the most memorable political essays in American history, “The Flight 93 Election,” written by
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August 14, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Today we conclude our preview of the new (Summer) issue of the Claremont Review of Books. With the indulgence of the editors, this bonus edition delivers the superb essay by Algis Valiunas on the literature of pandemics past: “In plague time.” This is a long essay reviewing the best literature on plagues ancient and modern. Algis writes: Amid the fear, sorrow, anger, and frustration of waiting out the current pandemic,
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August 13, 2020 — Scott Johnson
This is the third of three planned previews of the new (Summer) issue of the Claremont Review of Books. Having reviewed the issue in galley, I selected essays and reviews I thought some Power Line readers would find of interest. With the indulgence of the editors of the CRB, we are extending the preview with a bonus edition tomorrow. Please stay tuned. Today I have two books reviews that I
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August 11, 2020 — Scott Johnson
The Claremont Review of Books has just published its new (Summer) issue. Thanks to the editors, I reviewed the issue in galley to pick out four pieces to roll out this for Power Line readers today (essay by Michael Anton linked below), tomorrow (essay by Angelo Codevilla), and Thursday (two book reviews). As always, I encourage readers to become subscribers (subscribe here) for the absurdly low price of $19.95 and
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August 1, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Kevin Williams reviews Thomas Sowell’s new book on charter schools in the July 27 issue of National Review. The review is published under the headline “The Collapsing Case against Charter Schools.” The review opens: Thomas Sowell — who will have just turned 90 when this review is published — could have retired by now. He could be publishing the memoirs of a celebrated intellectual or the late-career tracts of an
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