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Books
Edward Jay Epstein, RIP
Last week I declared Edward Jay Esptein’s Assume Nothing: Encounters With Assassins, Spies, Presidents, and Would-Be Masters of the Universe my book of the year. I followed up with Ed by email, asking him how he was doing and telling him I wanted to visit him in New York. Ed responded that he was “just recovering from [his] first bout of covid” and asked how I was doing. I am »
The Shambhalic Henry Wallace
Henry Wallace! I have long thought that Roosevelt’s replacement of Wallace with Truman on the Democratic ticket in 1944 provided irrefutable proof that God looks out for the United States. Wallace was a fool who would have altered the course of history very much for the worse if he had succeeded Roosevelt to the presidency in 1945 instead of Truman. Among other evidence of Wallace’s foolishness, one thinks of Wallace’s »
My book of the year
John recently highlighted the favorite books he somehow found time to read in 2023. I want to highlight my own favorite new book published in 2023. Writing about Edward Jay Epstein in the adjacent post reminded me that I flagged it last year on Power Line at the time of publication. Lapham’s Quarterly excerpted the third chapter of the book and published it as “Waiting for Brando.” Ed titles the »
Books of 2023
Was 2023 a banner year for books? Not exactly. It was partly a walk on the dark side. In 2022, I started reading John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee books. I read the rest of them–there are 21 altogether–in 2023. As I wrote last year, McGee is a guilty pleasure. Who wouldn’t like to live on a Florida houseboat and fend off beautiful women, while doing battle with evildoers? MacDonald was »
Random thoughts on the passing seen
I have adapted the heading of this post from the great Thomas Sowell’s occasional columns expressing “random thoughts on the passing scene.” It is unbelievable how many apothegms he formulated and shibboleths he pierced in those occasional columns. In no way can I rise to Sowell’s standards. I only claim to have a few random thoughts. Random I can do. Sowell compiled numerous random thoughts from his columns in Part »
Some call it realism
John Mearsheimer is R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He fancies himself an international relations scholar who belongs to the realist school of thought. With Harvard’s Stephen Walt, he is the author of The Israel-Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, a book to which I devoted a lot of attention on Power Line when it was published in 2007. Mearsheimer has regained a »
Three damn things
In his post on Bill Barr, Lloyd Billingsley draws on One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General to mount a critique of Barr’s service as AG in two administrations, the second time at the behest of President Trump. Along with former CIA Director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, I thought Barr was one of Trump’s most impressive appointees. If Trump were to be reelected in 2024, »
Gibbon, Guns and Government
In the course of writing Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon encountered Mohammed, who pursued the Jews with “implacable hatred” to the end of his life. The historian also called out Theodoric the Great, the Ostrogoth king who invaded Italy in 488 AD and “condescended to disarm the unwarlike natives of Italy, interdicting all weapons of offence, and excepting only a small knife for domestic use.” Call »
A Whitaker Chambers Xmas
A friend asked me to recommend a book about Whittaker Chambers as a Christmas gift for her smartly conservative daughter several years ago. Chambers stands at the center of an incredible drama and several fantastic books about him. There is still much to be learned from him and his case. Here I revisit and expand the list with a little help from the eminent historian Harvey Klehr: 1. Witness is »
Robert Wistrich revisited
Robert S. Wistrich was 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 may also have been the leading academic authority on anti-Semitism. Witness his histories A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism From Antiquity to the Global Jihad (2010) and From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, The Jews and Israel (2012). »
A Collier remembrance
When Peter Collier died in 2019, Lloyd Billingsley paid tribute to him with this remembrance. I added these personal recollections of his impact on me. I first met Peter in 1989 or 1990 when he came to the Twin Cities with David Horowitz to promote Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About the ’60s. Having just finished reading the book the day before, I went to see Peter and David at Macalester »
A Collier Reader
RFK Jr. is in the running for president of the United States, the office his father RFK might have won if he had not been assassinated on June 6, 1968. RFK Jr.’s uncle JFK did gain election to the White House before he was shot dead on November 22, 1963. That launched a murder mystery that continues to this day. Readers can get a fresh perspective from Peter Collier, co-author »
For those who have given us such a happy life
Writing about Edward Gibbon’s view of “Mahomet” and “Mahometans” reminded me of Montaigne. I thought it might be worthwhile to repeat my comments on Montaigne and his use of irony in his discussion of Islam. Please forgive the repetition or, if you remember what I had to say: Reader, pass by! The cultural left exerts a tyrannical force policing our speech. To take just one current exposition of the phenomenon, »
When Edward met Muhammad, take 2
I am grateful to Lloyd Billingsley for his account of Edward Gibbon’s encounter with Muhammad in the pages of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire via Robert Spencer’s The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS. This is nothing more than a long footnote to Lloyd’s post for readers who might be unfamiliar with the text of Gibbon’s monument to posterity or interested in a »
David Garrow’s book of the year
It’s that time of the year when respectable publications offer recommended reading for the coming year. You too can make a new year’s resolution to fill the gaps in your education. One such source is the Wall Street Journal Review’s annual compilation of “Who Read What” (better this year than last). In its World (or American) edition The Spectator’s December issue performs a comparable service in “The Spectator’s 2023 Books »
When Edward Met Muhammad
In his massive Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon was bound to encounter the Muslims and their prophet. Published in 1776, the great historian’s work proves relevant for current events in the Middle East. The sword, says Muhammad, is the key of heaven and hell. A drop of blood shed in the cause of God, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months »