Archive

This past June I attended my daughter’s high school graduation. Observing the wrinkles, gray hair, and softening jawlines of the other parents, I concluded that most people weren’t aging...

Why Boredom Matters: Education, Leisure, and the Quest for a Meaningful Lifeby kevin hood garycambridge, 200 pages, $29.99 Conservative commentators have long bemoaned the proliferation of “studies” fields in...

Before Austen Comes Aesop: The Children’s Great Books and How to Experience Themby cheri blomquistignatius, 272 pages, $17.95 I begin with my conclusion: If you are reading this review, then...

The First Things 2022 Spring Campaign seeks to raise $600,000 by June 30. To make your contribution, visit www.firstthings.com/donate. In February of 2015, I received a note from Robert Wilken informing me...

Once a month, a robin’s-egg-blue box arrives at our house. “Mama! Mama! My books are here!” shouts my six-year-old daughter as she runs from the front door to the...

For those of us who were adults before the advent of the Internet, a three-ring binder was the best way to keep track of our favorite recipes. Most of...

More than twenty-five years ago, I spent two summers as a camp counselor in North Carolina. This year, I sent my fourteen-year-old daughter for five weeks to the same...

Contemporary universities are doing their best to eradicate prejudice and bias. Yet one remaining prejudice—against white men—is not only tolerated but encouraged. While we are told that diversity of...

The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Cultureby heather mac donaldst. martin’s, 288 pages, $28.99 There’s much talk about listening to women’s...

Faces of Moderation: The Art of Balance in an Age of Extremesby aurelian craiutupenn, 304 pages, $59.95 Everyone is orthodox to himself.” This famous phrase from Locke’s Letter Concerning...

I recently attended an academic conference at the University of Notre Dame called “Intersectional Inquiries and Collaborative Action: Gender and Race.” It felt like a return to my undergraduate...

My piano tuner is well over eighty years old. Each time I call him, I fear I’ll learn that he has died. So far he is still with us,...

The new game Cards Against Humanity advertises itself as “a party game for horrible people—despicable and awkward [like] you and your friends.” Its premise is simple. Black cards pose...

Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights
 by katha pollitt 
picador, 272 pages, $25 It’s easy to be a charitable reader when you like what a writer is saying. It’s possible even...

Over the past few months there has been a marked increase in stories about the decline of the humanities in higher education. Sometimes the coverage emerges from a particular...