James Nuechterlein

Because of Christ: Memoirs of a Lutheran Theologianby carl e. braaten eerdmans, 210 pages, $18 Lutherans are a theologically odd lot. They started the Reformation, but they have never felt entirely comfortable with the Protestant label. They don’t doubt that Rome was wrong, but they have always . . . . Continue Reading »

Reappraising the Right: The Past and Future of American Conservatism by George H. Nash ISI Books, 400 pages, $27.95 Conservatism in the United States begins at a rhetorical disadvantage. Conservatives believe in preserving tradition, but in America the distinctive national tradition is liberal. A . . . . Continue Reading »

The American Future: A History by Simon Schama Ecco, 400 pages, $29.99 It’s not easy for an author to disqualify his book from serious consideration with his first sentence, but in The American Future: A History , Simon Schama comes close: “I can tell you exactly, give or take a minute or . . . . Continue Reading »

Richard John Neuhaus had a big life, but his day-by-day world was a small one. There was his comfortable, though hardly luxurious, apartment in the townhouse occupied by the Community of Christ in the City on Nineteenth Street; the Immaculate Conception parish where he served as priest a few blocks . . . . Continue Reading »

Throes of Democracy: The American Civil War Era, 1829“1877 by Walter A. McDougall Harper, 787 pages, $34.95 American history is very popular these days, but histories of America”comprehensive accounts of the national experience”are not. Academics continue to churn out textbooks . . . . Continue Reading »

Godly Republic: A Centrist Blueprint for America’s Faith-Based Future By John J. DiIulio Jr. University of California Press, 329 pages, $24.95 It is, as a general rule, wise to be skeptical of those who describe themselves as political centrists. People who claim to be nonideological . . . . Continue Reading »

Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness by Joshua Wolf Shenk Houghton Mifflin, 368 pages, $25 Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin Simon & Schuster, 944 pages, $35 Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power . . . . Continue Reading »

The story of race in modern American history is a melancholy one. There was a brief, intense moment of hope in the early 1960s—a moment which produced the landmark civil-rights bills of 1964 and 1965—that the nation might somehow transcend its terrible racial past and enter on a new era . . . . Continue Reading »

What’s the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America By Thomas Frank Metropolitan 306 pp. $24 . The outcome of last November’s election was a long time in the making. It is clear, in the easy wisdom of hindsight, that the Democratic Party’s descent into its . . . . Continue Reading »

Our New Deal Nation James Nuechterlein For the Survival of Democracy: Franklin Roosevelt and the World Crisis of the 1930s By Alonzo L. Hamby Free Press 492 pp. $30 Presidential reputations tend to fluctuate according to contemporary preoccupations. Andrew Johnson, to cite a random example, was . . . . Continue Reading »