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Reviewed by Thomas Sowell
Those who put a high value on words may recoil at the title of Jonah Goldberg’s new book, Liberal Fascism. As a result, they may refuse to read it, which will be their loss — and a major loss.Those who value substance over words, however, will find in this book a wealth of challenging insights, backed up by thorough research and brilliant analysis.This is the sort of book that challenges the fundamental assumptions of its time — and which, for that reason, is likely to be shunned rather than criticized.
Read “Who Is “Fascist”?” — Reviewed by Thomas Sowell |
An Interview with the Author
Are you a single female reflecting on the year past and the year ahead and feeling in a limbo? Wanting to get on with life already — husband, kids, that American dream? Love and marriage are great things, the Heritage Foundation’s Jennifer Marshall writes in her book, Now and Not Yet: Making Sense of Single Life in the Twenty-First Century, but don’t put off living in the meantime, she advises.
Read “Love the Life You’re In” — An Interview with the Author |
Reviewed by Kathryn Jean Lopez
R.L.: “…[E]ven Sprite leaves a legacy.” M.L.: “I have thought about writing a book about him, but nobody will care.”R.L.: “Sprite no doubt taught you much — about the way he lived his life with the cards he was dealt and your family’s genuine compassion to love him and help him.”M.L.: Well nobody would want to read about my dog.R.L.: Sure they would . . . and your family’s life with him. It would touch millions of hearts. Mark Levin took his friend Rush Limbaugh’s advice and became the author of a book called Rescuing Sprite, which began as a letter to his family. This weekend, Rescuing Sprite: A Dog Lover's Story of Joy and Anguish is in its ninth week on the New York Times best-seller list.
Read “Rescuing Us” — Reviewed by Kathryn Jean Lopez |
An Interview with the Author
If you’re looking for a little wisdom around this time of year, Mark DeMoss, president of the p.r. firm, the DeMoss Group, based in Atlanta, Georgia, may have just the reflection for you. DeMoss (son of the late Arthur S. DeMoss), is author of The Little Red Book of Wisdom, a collection of fundamentals he primarily wrote down for his children to have. The book serves as an ode to faith and family life, an efficient business-management guide, and a little red reminder for anyone who is prone to working too hard.In a pre-Christmas interview with National Review Online, DeMoss talked about the book, politics, and other important things.
Read “The Little Red Book that Should Start a Cultural Revolution” — An Interview with the Author |
An Interview with the Author
Radio talk-show host, former Cabinet secretary, and future vice president William J. Bennett is author of a two-volume history of the United States — America, the Last Best Hope — just recently boxed up and packaged with a Ronald Reagan tribute CD. Just in time for Christmas, as they say. Bennett offers his pitch for the books, as well as thoughts on reading in America, 2008, and Pat Buchanan, in an NRO interview.Kathryn Jean Lopez: I’ve bought a number of Bill Bennett books over the years. Big ones even. What’s so special about this boxed set? William J. Bennett: Thank you! What’s special here is the range and depth, in one box, for a good price. You get pretty much all of American history, from Christopher Columbus to the fall of the Berlin Wall and, more importantly, you get it in an exciting and fair way: Not boring, not one sided — those were my twin goals.
Read “Boxed In” — An Interview with the Author |
Reviewed by Jay Nordlinger
Publisher’s Note: National Review has brought out Here, There & Everywhere: Collected Writings of Jay Nordlinger. You may order the book here. It has eight chapters — and we are making one piece per chapter available on NRO. We are doing this every Tuesday — hence, “Tuesdays with Jay”! The chapters are Society, Politics, People, The World, Cuba and China, Golf, Music, and Personal. For the pieces drawn from the first four chapters, go here, here, here, and here. And this week’s piece is from the chapter on Cuba and China. It was originally published in the National Review of April 24, 2006.Charles Lee has a story to tell, and I have come to hear it, in a New York conference room. Dr. Lee has recently been released from a Chinese prison, after three years’ confinement. He is an American — a U.S. citizen since 2002 — and he talks like one: His conversation is peppered with “like,” as in, “If you tried to move, they would, like, hit you.” Dr. Lee is a remarkably composed and assured man. But he has been through a ghastly ordeal, which is no surprise, given the People’s Republic and its ways.
Read “TUESDAYS WITH JAY: Prisoner of the PRC” — Reviewed by Jay Nordlinger |
An Interview with the Author
“They were ying and yang, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, identical but opposite.” Opposites attract, even in politics. Nicholas Wapshott is the author of the new book, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage. He recently took questions about the historic partnership from National Review Online editor Kathryn Lopez. Kathryn Jean Lopez: Why did you pick “marriage” as the description of the Ronald Reagan — Margaret Thatcher relationship? Nicholas Wapshott: Because their friendship and working partnership was far closer than any other, even more intimate even than that of Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, where Roosevelt never let Churchill forget that he was a supplicant. Not only were Reagan and Thatcher completely in concert with their political beliefs, their unshakeable personal alliance echoed those harmonious arrangements in which men and women combine perfectly at work and take office husbands and wives.
Read “Cold War Couple” — An Interview with the Author |
An Interview with the Author
A Democratic victory in 2008 is not inevitable, Mark Stricherz argues. In his new book, Why the Democrats are Blue: Secular Liberalism and the Decline of the People’s Party, Stricherz maps the recent history of a party that has lost the allegiance of the working class and Catholic voters that once constituted its base. Stricherz talks to National Review Online Editor Kathryn Lopez about what went wrong and how they can fix it. Kathryn Jean Lopez: What’s “shortsighted” about democratic inevitability predictions for 2008? Mark Stricherz: In almost every general election since 1972, the Democratic party’s association with abortion and homosexuality has damaged its nominee politically. George McGovern was tagged, famously, as the candidate of the three A’s — acid, amnesty, and abortion. Jimmy Carter in 1980 and Walter Mondale in 1984 were seen as captives of the feminists. Michael Dukakis in 1988 got killed on the abortion issue, according to a little-noticed ABC poll at the time. Bill Clinton acknowledged that the party’s cultural liberalism hurt him in many states.
Read “The Once and Future Democratic Party” — An Interview with the Author |
An Interview with the Author
Few books are more authoritative that the volumes in the Oxford History of the United States—a series that includes masterpieces such as The Glorious Cause by Robert Middlekauff (on the American Revolution) and Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson (on the Civil War).
Read “The Howe of History” — An Interview with the Author |
Reviewed by Eve Tushnet
Some say there’s a fine line between genius and madness. The Book of Jane is a chick-lit rewriting of the Book of Job.This is the third book in which the authors, Anne Dayton and May Vanderbilt, have explored the spiritual dilemmas of good-natured, privileged American women. With this one, Dayton and Vanderbilt have intuited, I think, that something is seriously lacking in the sunshiney, Tide-commercial Christianity of this country. In a prosperity-Gospel culture where even the Catholics think Vatican II said that being Christian wouldn’t hurt anymore, a chick-lit Job is a terrific idea — a sort of Jesus jujitsu, using the weight of an inherently fluffy and this-worldly genre to drag the protagonist to the foot of the Cross.
Read “Job Wears Prada” — Reviewed by Eve Tushnet |
Reviewed by W. James Antle III
Since at least the 2000 Republican primaries, it has become difficult for conservatives to appreciate two things about John McCain. The first is that he was for many years considered a mainstream Reagan conservative. As late as 1996, McCain was supporting Phil Gramm for president over Bob Dole. Something in the late 1990s snapped. The second thing conservatives have trouble appreciating about McCain is exactly why he is so popular with the media. It isn’t just because he is willing to take liberal positions campaign-finance reform, immigration or climate change, although that certainly helps. McCain is a politician reporters enjoy covering.
Read “Welch’s McCain” — Reviewed by W. James Antle III |
Reviewed by Carrie Lukas
For those keeping score in the battle of the sexes, women got a point last week when a study found that female corporate directors are paid more than males. But since the study also found that women are outnumbered by men in corporate board rooms 8 to 1, it’s probably best to call it a draw. It’s typical for a study of women in the workplace; there’s always evidence of women succeeding, but in terms of overall numbers, women lag behind. This frustrates feminists who long for women to equal men in terms of total professional prestige. They have numerous explanations for why women remain behind — including sexist workplaces and lazy husbands who pigeonhole wives into keeping house and tending children.
Read “Maybe It’s Motherhood” — Reviewed by Carrie Lukas |
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