The Dumbest Generation Grows Up
THE DUMBEST GENERATION GROWS UP: FROM STUPEFIED YOUTH TO DANGEROUS ADULTS By Mark Bauerlein The Dumbest Generation Grows Up is the sequel, in real time, to retired English professor Mark Bauerlein’s...
View ArticleChums
CHUMS: HOW A TINY CASTE OF OXFORD TORIES TOOK OVER THE UK By Simon Kuper I think Simon Kuper oversells the point he’s making in this book about a cadre of Tory toffs who attended Oxford University...
View ArticleWhy Empires Fall
WHY EMPIRES FALL: ROME, AMERICA, AND THE FUTURE OF THE WEST By Peter Heather and John Rapley Connections have been made between Rome and the United States since the early days of the American...
View ArticleAssume a Position
ASSUME A POSITION: CONSIDERATIONS AND INTERVIEWS By Jeff Bursey Whatever happened to literary criticism? For years I’ve been only one voice among many complaining about the disappearance of what has...
View ArticleTyranny of the Minority
TYRANNY OF THE MINORITY By Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt To update Sinclair Lewis for the Trump era: Why did it happen here? Meaning why did democracy, if not collapse, go into reverse in the...
View ArticleAutocracy, Inc.
AUTOCRACY, INC. By Anne Applebaum It’s become clear in the twenty-first century that the familiar political labels of the twentieth – fascism, communism, liberalism – no longer have a lot of purchase,...
View ArticleThe Age of Grievance
THE AGE OF GRIEVANCE By Frank Bruni Over the years – meaning mainly the last ten years, or the Trump era – I’ve written a lot about this being an Age of Anger, to borrow the title of one of the better...
View ArticleTechnofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism
TECHNOFEUDALISM: WHAT KILLED CAPITALISM By Yanis Varoufakis There’s a chapter in Technofeudalism titled “What’s in a Word?” where Yanis Varoufakis makes the case for the need to invent a new language...
View ArticleWhy Liberalism Failed
WHY LIBERALISM FAILED By Patrick J. Deneen In recent years Notre Dame University professor Patrick Deneen has become one of the gurus of a new conservative movement in American politics, with Why...
View ArticleWhen the Clock Broke
WHEN THE CLOCK BROKE: CON MEN, CONSPIRACISTS, AND HOW AMERICA CRACKED UP IN THE EARLY 1990S. By John Ganz I’ve mentioned before (at greatest length here) how books looking to explain the Trump era –...
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