This book by Mark Bauerlein is a sequel and updated assessment of his 2008 work, The Dumbest Generation, which makes the case that the dumbing down of our educational system together with the proliferation of the digital age into every corner of our lives has impoverished the Millennial generation, and the subtitle of the current work […]

Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity, by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay I first came in contact with the authors of this book in a TV interview with them, in which they start by defining the concept of “wokeness” as the condition one has if you have a certain […]

Probably like most of you, I have had an unusual amount of time for reading in this pandemic period, so here are comments on a few recent books I have read, a couple of them old favorites, and it’s not coincidental that there is quite a bit of overlap in the underlying theme, which is […]

As I have often done, I recently revisited C. S. Lewis’s classic of 1944, The Abolition of Man, and as usual was rewarded by gems of which I needed to be reminded and others that I missed before.  This small book is Lewis’s masterful critique of man’s being and purpose and in it, he confronts the […]

As many of you know, I have spent a good portion of my time over the past 20 years or so on public education reform, and recently I had the opportunity to assist and advise in a small way with the publication of a new book with fresh ideas about education reform, primarily in Texas, […]

The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties, by Christopher Caldwell Caldwell, a Senior Fellow with the Claremont Institute, has spent many years analyzing and reflecting on the liberal uprising of the 1960s and its unforeseen consequences, and this book is a survey of that work.  To understand the points he makes about where we […]

Since the publication of my book, The Texas Pilgrim: 20 Years of Reflection and Commentary, in which I included a number of book reviews of the 150 or so I have written, I have been asked by several readers to recommend my top selections over the years.  Given the current circumstances in which we find […]

Both of the books being reviewed this month were published a couple of years ago, but have been on my shelf as I covered other bases.  As it turns out, however, this was a good time to read and comment on them as we begin the long slog through this election year, as they in […]