Last year I saw two truly vile movies, Pulp Fiction and Kids. The first turned my stomach. The second filled me with shame for having sat through it: leaving the theater, I felt unclean. Those movie experiences reminded me of the depths to which popular culture has sunk, a reminder . . . . Continue Reading »
Nietzsche: The Ethics of an Immoralist by peter berkowitz harvard university press, 313 pages, $35 A consensus about the meaning of Nietzsche’s philosophy continues to elude us. One might have thought, for example, that a man who praises cruelty, denounces pity, and entertains the idea of mass . . . . Continue Reading »
Chinese astronomers Hi and Ho were put to death for failing to foretell the solar eclipse of 2169 B.C. I myself was taken by surprise in 1979. A sifting of light pulled me away from my baby’s morning nap and onto the edge of the porch. A line in the west, the leading edge of shadow dividing light . . . . Continue Reading »
When the Editor-in-Chief of this journal invited me to come East to work with him and his colleagues some six and a half years ago, it was in almost every way an offer I could not refuse. It meant doing work I wanted to do in the company of people I wanted to work with. I had not previously thought . . . . Continue Reading »
Mencken: A Lifeby fred hobsonrandom house, 650 pages, $35 H. L. Mencken, My Life as Author and Editor.edited with an introduction by jonathan yardleyknopf, 450 pages, $30 H. L. Mencken, Thirty-five Years of Newspaper Work . edited by fred hobson, vincent fitzpatrick, and bradford . . . . Continue Reading »
The cover of the New Republic picture this big thick book titled The Constitution of the United States. The real Constitution makes a very thin pamphlet, but with all that some folk have discovered in the Constitution in recent decades, maybe it looks to them like a big thick book. Anyway, the book . . . . Continue Reading »
The importance of Christianity in the formation of Western civilization can hardly be denied. That importance is not simply a matter of the past. In the process of secularization Western culture did emancipate itself from its religious roots, but that emancipation was by no means complete. A . . . . Continue Reading »
Immigration and Immigrants:Setting the Record Straightby michael fix and jeffrey s. passel urban institute, 104 pages, $10 paperPostwar Immigrant America: A Social Historyby reed ueda bedford/st. martin's press, 182 pages, $10 paperWhen Gov. Lawton Chiles of Florida announced his plans earlier this . . . . Continue Reading »
Modernity and Crises of Identity: Culture and Society in Fin-de-Siecle Vienna by jacques le rider translated by rosemary morris continuum, 380 pages, $34.95 To the best of my knowledge, no one has yet compared the Vienna of Freud’s time with Periclean Athens; but if it ever happens, I will . . . . Continue Reading »
Jack:A Life of C.S. Lewis by george sayer crossway, 423 pages, $13.99 paper Most biographies of C. S. Lewis so far have been hagiographical chronicles, the great exception being A. N. Wilson’s notorious warts-and-all treatment, which, though it has unfairly been called a hatchet job, would rather . . . . Continue Reading »
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