Some of the most tactically effective defenses of religious liberty rely on appeals to theories of rights or alliances with candidates who cut against the core of your faith. These strategies can win the battle but lose the war. | Continue reading
A spirited debate has been going on for nearly a decade now, much of it in these pages, about . . . . | Continue reading
In recent decades, one of the most popular terms of political abuse has been “fascist.” | Continue reading
In the early 1950s, the European Union as we know it did not exist, but a process of economic and . . . . | Continue reading
Josh Billings remarked profoundly that “the trouble with people is not that they don’t know but . . . . | Continue reading
The machine will allegedly elevate humans according to values different from those of nature—a Superman. Where have we heard that before? | Continue reading
The piano is the instrument of expressive individualism; the harpsichord is the instrument of a vibrant, discursive life of the mind. | Continue reading
Emma Eckstein was a bleeder: She liked to bleed. She wanted to empty herself out into the world. She . . . . | Continue reading
If you arrive at Kim’s Diner before noon, your best option for breakfast is either the homemade . . . . | Continue reading
After Harold Bloom died in October 2019, E. D. Hirsch told a story from the early 1960s, when they . . . . | Continue reading
For Saunders, fiction is fundamentally moral. | Continue reading
Recently, I paged through a friend’s copy of a just-released bestseller in political theory. I . . . . | Continue reading
No writer understood loneliness better than Chekhov. People long for understanding, and try to . . . . | Continue reading
Between 1900 and 1917, waves of unprecedented terror struck Russia. Several parties professing . . . . | Continue reading
If critical theory in its demolition of the past can often degenerate into an ideological justification of ingratitude, then Marcuse was both its pioneer and its poster boy. | Continue reading
In the opening lines of Cold Warriors, Duncan White notes that “between February and May . . . . | Continue reading
The coronavirus pandemic is not and never was a threat to society. | Continue reading
When Boeing introduced its flagship 707 jet airliner in 1958, the power to cruise at 977 . . . . | Continue reading
“National populism-lite” is unfolding in Britain. | Continue reading
The future will look very different from the past. The Garden of Paradise will culminate in the City . . . . | Continue reading
Near the bottom of the pit of hell, Dante encounters a man walking with his torso split from chin to groin, his guts and other organs spilling out. See how I tear myself! the man shrieks. See how Mahomet is deformed and torn! For us, the scene is not only gruesome but surpris … | Continue reading
One of the strangest claims often made by purveyors and consumers of today’s popular atheism is . . . . | Continue reading
Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism by james stevens . . . . | Continue reading
Why are old people so invisible in our “culture”? | Continue reading
James Boswell, who knew a thing or two about hero worship, called Julius Caesar “the greatest man . . . . | Continue reading
How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed by Ray Kurzweil Viking, 352 pages, . . . . | Continue reading
Incerto: Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, The Bed of Procrustes, Antifragile by nassim . . . . | Continue reading
Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain by james bloodworth atlantic, 288 pages, . . . . | Continue reading
Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Life by diarmaid macculloch viking, 752 pages, $40 They said . . . . | Continue reading
After a lifetime of impeccably correct opinions, Ian Buruma found himself on the wrong side of the . . . . | Continue reading
You tell me you are thinking, my dear Stephen, of medicine as a career, but you wonder whether you . . . . | Continue reading
What defines the essence of populism? What is it for, and what is it against? T. S. Eliot had some . . . . | Continue reading
It has been almost twenty years since I dissected a dead human body. It still seems strange: My . . . . | Continue reading
Ossa Latinitatis Sola ad Mentem Reginaldi Rationemque: The Mere Bones of Latin According to the . . . . | Continue reading