I have been a follower of George Will’s work for about 40 years, although I haven’t read one of his books since Statecraft as Soulcraft, his first full length book, over 35 years ago.  I am pleased that I chose to read his latest, The Conservative Sensibility, a major addition to conservative thought that one reviewer, […]

The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West, by David McCullough This is a typical McCullough book–a great story, easy to read, educational, and fun.  It tells the story of the settlement and development of the Northwest Territory of the U. S. through the experiences and legacy of several […]

If you are a big fan of Charles Krauthammer as I am, this volume, The Point of It All: A Lifetime of Great Loves and Endeavors, will not disappoint.  In fact I think it is better than his last collection of essays before his death.  This one encompasses 91 essays and articles covering almost 40 years […]

I suppose that, with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln, no one has had more words written about him than Winston Churchill and, particularly after the 30 years and multiple volumes of output by his official biographer Martin Gilbert, one might wonder what else could there possible be to say or write about him.  And […]

The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture, by Heather MacDonald An alternative title to this book might be Identity Politics 101, because Heather MacDonald takes all of it on in a book full of much of what she has written on the subject over the past few […]

Since the Brexit vote in the UK and the election of Donald Trump, the theme of nationalism has been thrown around like some 20th century disease that grew out of Nazism and with movements rife with xenophobia and worse, racism.  Well, there are some nationalists who might harbor such instincts, but it is an unfair […]

Patrick Deneen has written a very ambitious book, Why Liberalism Failed, in which in several respects he makes a compelling case that its founding ideology was destined to fail because it was built upon a foundation of a number of contradictions.  He opens the book as follows: “A political philosophy conceived some 500 years ago, […]

After seeing him on almost every talk show for months and reading a number of reviews and essays on his work, I finally caught up with Jordan Peterson’s best seller, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, and I can say without hesitation that it is one of the more unusual works I have […]

The bulk of my reading this summer has been to revisit previous readings that address the relationship of religious faith and philosophical reason, a subject that has challenged me for some time.  Saint Augustine said that we must believe before we can understand and I have over the years sought out sources that can expand […]

After it sat on my shelf for several years, I finally got around to reading Lone Star Nation, by H. W. Brands, and quickly discovered what a treat I had been missing.  I guess I thought I knew all I wanted to know about the formative history of Texas, particularly since I consumed the late […]