• Why The Name?
  • Subscribe
  • Authors
  • About

The Worthy House

Menu
  • Reviews
  • Analyses & Colloquies
  • Random
  • All
  • Narrations
Close Menu

Recent Posts

The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction (Matthew B. Crawford)

Published by Charles

Attacks on digital technology for destroying our capacity for attention are a dime a dozen. Despite its title, Matthew Crawford’s The World Beyond Your Head is not such an...

November 14, 2019
comments 0
Book Reviews, Charles, Life Advice, Political Economy, Post-Liberalism, Practical Skills, Social Behavior

The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Walter Scheidel)

Published by Charles

Economic inequality is, and has been for several years now, the talk of the town. But most of this talk is political—of economic goods today, and whether and how...

November 11, 2019
comments 7
Book Reviews, Charles, Longitudinal History, Political Economy, War

Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West (R. R. Reno)

Published by Charles

Rusty Reno, editor of the prominent religious conservative journal First Things, here couples an original diagnosis of how we got to the vicious decay of now with very muted...

October 25, 2019
comments 10
Book Reviews, Charles, Conservatism, Great Fragmentation, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis, Post-Liberalism, Social Behavior, Wars To Come

Alexander the Great: His Life and His Mysterious Death (Anthony Everitt)

Published by Charles

Different eras view Alexander III of Macedon differently. Though always honored as a hugely successful military leader and conqueror, in the ancient world, he got mixed press, seen as...

October 19, 2019
comments 8
Biography & Autobiography, Book Reviews, Charles, Classical History, Military History, Social Behavior, The Orient

The New Philistines (Sohrab Ahmari)

Published by Charles

I am a Sohrab Ahmari fanboy. I endorse his recent full-throated calls for creation of a post-liberal future, and admire that he has boldly claimed the mantle of leadership....

October 9, 2019
comments 11
Art, Achitecture & Building, Book Reviews, Charles, Foundationalism, Left-Liberalism, Post-Liberalism

Bronze Age Mindset (Bronze Age Pervert)

Published by Charles

I am fascinated by what is to come. For someone who came of age imbibing the narrow, facile, weak, always-second-place conservative pieties of the late 1980s and the 1990s,...

September 23, 2019
comments 18
Book Reviews, Charles, Classical History, Conservatism, Great Fragmentation, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis, Post-Liberalism, Primitive Cultures, Sex Roles, Social Behavior

The Samurai (Shūsaku Endō)

Published by Charles

The Japanese author Shūsaku Endō is known primarily for his 1966 masterwork, Silence, about the persecution of Christians in mid-seventeenth-century Japan. The backdrop of Silence is the aftermath of...

September 20, 2019
comments 0
Book Reviews, Charles, Christian History, Christian Theology, Colonialism, Ethnography, Fiction, Religion, The Orient

A World Split Apart: Commencement Address Delivered at Harvard University, June 8, 1978 (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)

Published by Charles

We in America have long thought highly of ourselves. This feeling crested during the early Cold War, when most Americans believed that our “system,” our way of life, was...

September 18, 2019
comments 6
Apocalypse, Book Reviews, Charles, Communism, Conservatism, Foundationalism, Great Fragmentation, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis, Post-Liberalism, Wars To Come

The Memoirs of St. Peter: A New Translation of the Gospel According to Mark (Michael Pakaluk)

Published by Charles

New translations of the Bible, targeted at a broad audience and done by individuals, rather than committees, seem to be a growth industry. This book, a translation of the...

September 10, 2019
comments 2
Book Reviews, Charles, Christian History, Christian Theology, Religion

The Improbable Wendell Willkie: The Businessman Who Saved the Republican Party and His Country, and Conceived a New World Order (David Levering Lewis)

Published by Charles

If the word hagiography had not already been coined, it would need to be invented for this book. To David Levering Lewis, Wendell Willkie was a combination of Saint...

September 5, 2019
comments 0
American History, Biography & Autobiography, Book Reviews, Charles, Conservatism, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.

T. E. Lawrence

Sharing Is Caring

Following Is Also Caring

Recent Comments

  • Bartolo on Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West (R. R. Reno)
  • Leonard on The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Walter Scheidel)
  • Charles on The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Walter Scheidel)
  • Leonard on The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Walter Scheidel)
  • Charles on The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Walter Scheidel)
  • Charles on The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Walter Scheidel)
  • Arilando on The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Walter Scheidel)
  • Carlos Danger on Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West (R. R. Reno)
  • Marcus on The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Walter Scheidel)
  • Charles on Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West (R. R. Reno)

Categories

  • Administrative State (13)
  • American History (86)
  • Analysis (14)
  • Apocalypse (25)
  • Art, Achitecture & Building (10)
  • Atheism (11)
  • Biography & Autobiography (56)
  • Book Reviews (360)
  • British History (25)
  • Business & Money (32)
  • Charles (375)
  • Children (2)
  • Christian History (33)
  • Christian Theology (31)
  • Civil War (8)
  • Classical History (28)
  • Colloquies (7)
  • Colonialism (18)
  • Communism (22)
  • Conservatism (57)
  • Eastern European History (16)
  • Economics (39)
  • Ethnography (37)
  • European History (76)
  • Fiction (22)
  • Foundationalism (7)
  • Gardening & Farming (6)
  • Great Divergence (30)
  • Great Fragmentation (41)
  • Guns (9)
  • Islam & The Islamic World (28)
  • Jared (4)
  • Latin American History (4)
  • Law (23)
  • Left-Liberalism (81)
  • Life Advice (24)
  • Longitudinal History (22)
  • Medieval History (26)
  • Military History (22)
  • Political Discussion & Analysis (133)
  • Political Economy (77)
  • Popular (14)
  • Post-Liberalism (66)
  • Practical Skills (21)
  • Primitive Cultures (19)
  • Religion (46)
  • Renaissance History (10)
  • Science (22)
  • Science Fiction & Fantasy (16)
  • Sex Roles (15)
  • Social Behavior (72)
  • Social Justice Warriors (31)
  • Technology (17)
  • The Orient (46)
  • Totalitarian Socialism (20)
  • War (54)
  • Wars To Come (60)

Subscribe By Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to The Worthy House and receive notifications of new writings by email. No spam, obviously.

Archives

  • November 2019 (2)
  • October 2019 (3)
  • September 2019 (5)
  • August 2019 (6)
  • July 2019 (8)
  • June 2019 (9)
  • May 2019 (4)
  • April 2019 (14)
  • March 2019 (1)
  • February 2019 (7)
  • January 2019 (7)
  • December 2018 (6)
  • November 2018 (10)
  • October 2018 (6)
  • September 2018 (9)
  • August 2018 (10)
  • July 2018 (5)
  • June 2018 (6)
  • May 2018 (6)
  • April 2018 (6)
  • March 2018 (10)
  • February 2018 (8)
  • January 2018 (8)
  • December 2017 (5)
  • November 2017 (8)
  • October 2017 (9)
  • September 2017 (7)
  • August 2017 (8)
  • July 2017 (8)
  • June 2017 (10)
  • May 2017 (6)
  • April 2017 (6)
  • March 2017 (11)
  • February 2017 (11)
  • January 2017 (12)
  • December 2016 (6)
  • November 2016 (6)
  • October 2016 (8)
  • September 2016 (5)
  • August 2016 (8)
  • July 2016 (9)
  • June 2016 (9)
  • April 2016 (4)
  • March 2016 (7)
  • February 2016 (10)
  • January 2016 (4)
  • November 2015 (4)
  • October 2015 (1)
  • September 2015 (5)
  • August 2015 (12)
  • July 2015 (8)
  • June 2015 (2)
  • May 2015 (1)
  • April 2015 (3)
  • March 2015 (5)
  • February 2015 (5)
  • January 2015 (3)

Recent

The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction (Matthew B. Crawford)

Published by Charles

Attacks on digital technology for destroying our capacity for attention are a dime a dozen. Despite its title, Matthew Crawford’s The World Beyond Your Head is not such an...

November 14, 2019
comments 0
Book Reviews, Charles, Life Advice, Political Economy, Post-Liberalism, Practical Skills, Social Behavior

The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Walter Scheidel)

Published by Charles

Economic inequality is, and has been for several years now, the talk of the town. But most of this talk is political—of economic goods today, and whether and how...

November 11, 2019
comments 7
Book Reviews, Charles, Longitudinal History, Political Economy, War

Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West (R. R. Reno)

Published by Charles

Rusty Reno, editor of the prominent religious conservative journal First Things, here couples an original diagnosis of how we got to the vicious decay of now with very muted...

October 25, 2019
comments 10
Book Reviews, Charles, Conservatism, Great Fragmentation, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis, Post-Liberalism, Social Behavior, Wars To Come

Alexander the Great: His Life and His Mysterious Death (Anthony Everitt)

Published by Charles

Different eras view Alexander III of Macedon differently. Though always honored as a hugely successful military leader and conqueror, in the ancient world, he got mixed press, seen as...

October 19, 2019
comments 8
Biography & Autobiography, Book Reviews, Charles, Classical History, Military History, Social Behavior, The Orient

The New Philistines (Sohrab Ahmari)

Published by Charles

I am a Sohrab Ahmari fanboy. I endorse his recent full-throated calls for creation of a post-liberal future, and admire that he has boldly claimed the mantle of leadership....

October 9, 2019
comments 11
Art, Achitecture & Building, Book Reviews, Charles, Foundationalism, Left-Liberalism, Post-Liberalism

Bronze Age Mindset (Bronze Age Pervert)

Published by Charles

I am fascinated by what is to come. For someone who came of age imbibing the narrow, facile, weak, always-second-place conservative pieties of the late 1980s and the 1990s,...

September 23, 2019
comments 18
Book Reviews, Charles, Classical History, Conservatism, Great Fragmentation, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis, Post-Liberalism, Primitive Cultures, Sex Roles, Social Behavior

The Samurai (Shūsaku Endō)

Published by Charles

The Japanese author Shūsaku Endō is known primarily for his 1966 masterwork, Silence, about the persecution of Christians in mid-seventeenth-century Japan. The backdrop of Silence is the aftermath of...

September 20, 2019
comments 0
Book Reviews, Charles, Christian History, Christian Theology, Colonialism, Ethnography, Fiction, Religion, The Orient

A World Split Apart: Commencement Address Delivered at Harvard University, June 8, 1978 (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)

Published by Charles

We in America have long thought highly of ourselves. This feeling crested during the early Cold War, when most Americans believed that our “system,” our way of life, was...

September 18, 2019
comments 6
Apocalypse, Book Reviews, Charles, Communism, Conservatism, Foundationalism, Great Fragmentation, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis, Post-Liberalism, Wars To Come

The Memoirs of St. Peter: A New Translation of the Gospel According to Mark (Michael Pakaluk)

Published by Charles

New translations of the Bible, targeted at a broad audience and done by individuals, rather than committees, seem to be a growth industry. This book, a translation of the...

September 10, 2019
comments 2
Book Reviews, Charles, Christian History, Christian Theology, Religion

The Improbable Wendell Willkie: The Businessman Who Saved the Republican Party and His Country, and Conceived a New World Order (David Levering Lewis)

Published by Charles

If the word hagiography had not already been coined, it would need to be invented for this book. To David Levering Lewis, Wendell Willkie was a combination of Saint...

September 5, 2019
comments 0
American History, Biography & Autobiography, Book Reviews, Charles, Conservatism, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis

Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism (James Stevens Curl)

Published by Charles

High architecture, that of grand buildings, is a bridge between God and man, and a sinew binding state and people, the ruling class and the masses. Low architecture, that...

August 27, 2019
comments 0
Art, Achitecture & Building, Book Reviews, Charles, Foundationalism, Post-Liberalism, Social Behavior

American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm (Thomas P. Hughes)

Published by Charles

American Genesis is a cultural history of the grand century of American technology, from 1870 to 1970. Thomas Hughes published his book in 1989, when Americans believed that the...

August 21, 2019
comments 0
American History, Book Reviews, Business & Money, Charles, Political Economy, Technology

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (James Fitzjames Stephen)

Published by Charles

Among the many idols of our age, there is one that rules them all: John Stuart Mill’s harm principle, the belief that an individual’s choices may never be legitimately...

August 16, 2019
comments 0
Book Reviews, British History, Charles, Conservatism, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis, Post-Liberalism, Social Behavior

Ibn Khaldun: An Intellectual Biography (Robert Irwin)

Published by Charles

I generally liked this book, by the erudite Orientalist Robert Irwin, but I am not sure why it exists. It is too academic to be popular, and too popular...

August 9, 2019
comments 2
Biography & Autobiography, Book Reviews, Charles, Islam & The Islamic World, Medieval History

Invisible Planets (Hannu Rajaniemi)

Published by Charles

I have always loathed the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen. Bleak, unhappy, and cold, they depressed me as a child, and I’m not a depressive person. True, that...

August 7, 2019
comments 0
Book Reviews, Charles, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Technology

The Thirty-Year Genocide: Turkey’s Destruction of Its Christian Minorities, 1894–1924 (Benny Morris and Dror Ze’evi)

Published by Charles

This book, a massive study by two Israeli historians, aspires to answer why and how Turkey exterminated its Christian population in the thirty years between 1894 and 1924. Usually...

August 6, 2019
comments 7
Book Reviews, Charles, Christian History, Ethnography, European History, Islam & The Islamic World, The Orient, War, Wars To Come

Orbánland: How I Came To Understand Viktor Orbán’s Hungary And The Future Of Europe (Lasse Skytt)

Published by Charles

I am in an odd position with respect to Hungary. Because I’m half Hungarian, speak the language (rustily now) and two decades ago spent nearly a year there, I...

July 31, 2019
comments 7
Book Reviews, Charles, Eastern European History, Political Discussion & Analysis, Post-Liberalism

The New Right: A Journey to the Fringe of American Politics (Michael Malice)

Published by Charles

The American conservative movement is traditionally dated to 1955, the date William F. Buckley started National Review to “stand athwart history.” For decades, conservatives looked back to that event...

July 27, 2019
comments 9
Book Reviews, Charles, Conservatism, Great Fragmentation, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis, Post-Liberalism, Wars To Come

Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America (Chris Arnade)

Published by Charles

Last year, I went to the State Fair, and simply sat and watched the people pass by. The vast majority were lower class, and looked it. I tried, for...

July 24, 2019
comments 8
Book Reviews, Charles, Economics, Political Discussion & Analysis, Political Economy, Social Behavior

Conformity: The Power of Social Influences (Cass R. Sunstein)

Published by Charles

In Conformity, Cass Sunstein takes common sense about how decisions are informed, and distorted, by social pressure and makes it both better and worse. Better, because he shows why...

July 20, 2019
comments 2
Book Reviews, Charles, Law, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis, Social Behavior

On Space

Published by Charles

I am often asked to define my political program, Foundationalism. In essence, this is a request to state its core principles. The ultimate, first-level principle of Foundationalism, is that...

July 13, 2019
comments 9
Analysis, Charles, Foundationalism, Science, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Technology

Laughing Shall I Die: Lives and Deaths of the Great Vikings (Tom Shippey)

Published by Charles

In these days where man is held to be homo economicus, we are told that all people are basically the same, and what they want, most of all, is...

July 10, 2019
comments 4
Book Reviews, British History, Charles, European History, Medieval History, Military History, Sex Roles, Social Behavior, War

The Social Media Upheaval (Glenn Harlan Reynolds)

Published by Charles

Glenn Reynolds, the famous “Instapundit” and a law professor at the University of Tennessee, offers a short book about social media and the problems it brings. He frames his...

July 6, 2019
comment 1
Book Reviews, Business & Money, Charles, Law, Political Discussion & Analysis, Political Economy, Social Behavior, Technology

Unmasking the Administrative State: The Crisis of American Politics in the Twenty-First Century (John Marini)

Published by Charles

Conservatives have long complained about the administrative state, the monster that swallowed America. Many complaints focus on the end result: how the administrative state is a tool of the...

July 4, 2019
comments 7
Administrative State, American History, Book Reviews, Charles, Foundationalism, Law, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis, Post-Liberalism

On Communitarianism

Published by Charles

Not everyone buys my belief that we are fast heading, in America, to some combination of the works of John Rambo and Francisco Franco. After all, it’d be more...

June 29, 2019
comments 4
Analysis, Charles, Great Fragmentation, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis, Post-Liberalism, Social Behavior, Wars To Come

Christ the Conqueror of Hell: The Descent into Hades from an Orthodox Perspective (Hilarion Alfeyev)

Published by Charles

In recent months, I have talked a great deal about politics and current events. It is time to pivot, for a moment, and talk about something totally different—the eternal....

June 28, 2019
comments 5
Book Reviews, Charles, Christian History, Christian Theology, Religion

Theory of the Partisan: Intermediate Commentary on the Concept of the Political (Carl Schmitt)

Published by Charles

This is a book born of a particular time and place. The time was 1962; the place was postwar Europe. The West was frozen in the glare of spreading...

June 21, 2019
comments 0
Book Reviews, Charles, Colonialism, European History, Political Discussion & Analysis, Post-Liberalism, War, Wars To Come

The War on Normal People: The Truth About America’s Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income Is Our Future (Andrew Yang)

Published by Charles

Just in time for the first Democratic presidential debates, I have finished candidate Andrew Yang’s manifesto, The War on Normal People. From its title, which subversively suggests there is...

June 19, 2019
comments 12
American History, Book Reviews, Business & Money, Charles, Economics, Political Discussion & Analysis, Political Economy, Technology

Built: The Hidden Stories Behind our Structures (Roma Agrawal)

Published by Charles

I have always found structural engineering fascinating, though I’m a consumer of the results, not a producer like Roma Agrawal. No doubt the life of a structural engineer is...

June 17, 2019
comments 2
Art, Achitecture & Building, Book Reviews, Charles, Sex Roles

Escaping the Russian Bear: An Estonian Girl’s Memoir of Loss and Survival During World War II (Kristina von Rosenvinge)

Published by Charles

I am fond of pointing out that the safety and security we think we enjoy is, historically speaking, anomalous and ephemeral. This memoir, by the late Kristina von Rosenvinge,...

June 15, 2019
comments 0
Biography & Autobiography, Book Reviews, Charles, Communism, Eastern European History, European History, Social Behavior, Totalitarian Socialism, War

Popular

Rise and Grind: Outperform, Outwork, and Outhustle Your Way to a More Successful and Rewarding Life (Daymond John)

Published by Charles

People often ask me, as I stride the halls of power in my custom Zegna suits wove with thread of gold, how I became so rich and successful. Like...

April 30, 2019
comments 13
Book Reviews, Business & Money, Charles, Popular

On Francisco Franco

Published by Charles

Few Americans know much about Francisco Franco, leader of the winning side in the Spanish Civil War and subsequently dictator of Spain. Yet from 1936 until 1975, he was...

April 16, 2019
comments 11
Analysis, Biography & Autobiography, Book Reviews, Charles, Civil War, Communism, European History, Left-Liberalism, Military History, Political Discussion & Analysis, Popular, Post-Liberalism, War, Wars To Come

Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline (Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson)

Published by Charles

Anybody who has been paying attention has long grasped the truth: underpopulation, not overpopulation, is our problem. This will soon be true on a global scale, it is already...

February 12, 2019
comments 12
Apocalypse, Book Reviews, Charles, Political Economy, Popular, Science, Sex Roles, Social Behavior

On Battlefield V

Published by Charles

Last year, the giant gaming company Electronic Arts released the latest version of an extremely popular military game, Battlefield V. Each release in the series takes place in a...

January 16, 2019
comments 21
Analysis, Business & Money, Charles, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis, Popular, Sex Roles, Social Justice Warriors

The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age (Tim Wu)

Published by Charles

As the ideological tectonic plates shift in America, many apparently settled matters have become unsettled.  This creates, at the same time, both conflict and strange bedfellows, though I suspect...

November 18, 2018
comments 4
American History, Book Reviews, Business & Money, Charles, Conservatism, Great Fragmentation, Political Discussion & Analysis, Political Economy, Popular, Social Behavior, Technology

On the Subjective Mental State of Liberals

Published by Charles

In 1974, philosopher Thomas Nagel famously asked “What Is it Like to be a Bat?”  Nagel rejected reductionism, the idea that all consciousness can be reduced to simpler components...

November 4, 2018
comments 15
Analysis, Charles, Left-Liberalism, Popular, Social Behavior

How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us. . . . (Michael Pollan)

Published by Charles

I have led a boring life, at least as measured by the topics covered by this book, Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind.  Not only have I never...

October 12, 2018
comments 5
Book Reviews, Charles, Christian Theology, Life Advice, Popular, Religion, Science

How Democracies Die (Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt)

Published by Charles

This may be the worst well-written book I have ever read.  That is, most awful books are bad in their writing, bad in their organization, bad in their reasoning,...

September 25, 2018
comments 5
American History, Book Reviews, Charles, Conservatism, Great Fragmentation, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis, Popular, Post-Liberalism, Social Justice Warriors, Wars To Come

On Preemptive Apologies by Conservatives

Published by Charles

A disability afflicts nearly all conservative arguments today.  Rather than being a robust picture of vigor and health, as they should given their firm ground in reality and the...

September 19, 2018
comments 0
Analysis, Charles, Conservatism, Great Fragmentation, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis, Popular, Post-Liberalism, Social Behavior, Social Justice Warriors

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup (John Carreyrou)

Published by Charles

While pretty much everyone in this book who is rich and powerful comes off looking bad, it is less a tale of typical fraud, like a Ponzi scheme, and...

May 24, 2018
comments 2
Book Reviews, Business & Money, Charles, Law, Popular, Science, Technology

The Power of the Powerless (Václav Havel)

Published by Charles

This book was once famous, but was mostly forgotten when Communism died and so-called liberal democracy seemed ascendant.  It is increasingly famous again, and relevant, in these days of...

May 18, 2018
comments 11
Book Reviews, Charles, Communism, Conservatism, Eastern European History, European History, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis, Popular, Post-Liberalism, Social Behavior, Social Justice Warriors, Wars To Come

Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy (Jonah Goldberg)

Published by Charles

I think this book is meant as a #NeverTrumper manifesto, an attempt to create intellectual backbone for that wispy band of conservative holdouts, who crouch behind the crenellations in...

May 2, 2018
comments 10
American History, Book Reviews, Charles, Conservatism, Great Fragmentation, Political Discussion & Analysis, Popular, Post-Liberalism

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress (Steven Pinker)

Published by Charles

As with Steven Pinker’s earlier The Better Angels of Our Nature, of which this is really an expansion and elucidation, I was frustrated by this book.  On the one...

February 16, 2018
comments 9
Book Reviews, Charles, Great Divergence, Left-Liberalism, Political Economy, Popular, Social Behavior, Technology

The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow’s World (Charles C. Mann)

Published by Charles

This book addresses what is, as far as the material comforts of the modern age, the central question of our time—can mankind have it all?  The author, Charles Mann,...

February 9, 2018
comments 0
Apocalypse, Biography & Autobiography, Book Reviews, Charles, Conservatism, Gardening & Farming, Political Economy, Popular, Technology

More Recent Posts

The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction (Matthew B. Crawford)Attacks on digital technology for destroying our capacity for attention are a dime a...November 14, 2019

The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Walter Scheidel)Economic inequality is, and has been for several years now, the talk of the...November 11, 2019

Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West (R. R. Reno)Rusty Reno, editor of the prominent religious conservative journal First Things, here couples an...October 25, 2019

Alexander the Great: His Life and His Mysterious Death (Anthony Everitt)Different eras view Alexander III of Macedon differently. Though always honored as a hugely...October 19, 2019

The New Philistines (Sohrab Ahmari)I am a Sohrab Ahmari fanboy. I endorse his recent full-throated calls for creation...October 9, 2019

Bronze Age Mindset (Bronze Age Pervert)I am fascinated by what is to come. For someone who came of age...September 23, 2019

The Samurai (Shūsaku Endō)The Japanese author Shūsaku Endō is known primarily for his 1966 masterwork, Silence, about...September 20, 2019

A World Split Apart: Commencement Address Delivered at Harvard University, June 8, 1978 (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)We in America have long thought highly of ourselves. This feeling crested during the...September 18, 2019

The Memoirs of St. Peter: A New Translation of the Gospel According to Mark (Michael Pakaluk)New translations of the Bible, targeted at a broad audience and done by individuals,...September 10, 2019

The Improbable Wendell Willkie: The Businessman Who Saved the Republican Party and His Country, and Conceived a New World Order (David Levering Lewis)If the word hagiography had not already been coined, it would need to be...September 5, 2019

Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism (James Stevens Curl)High architecture, that of grand buildings, is a bridge between God and man, and...August 27, 2019

American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm (Thomas P. Hughes)American Genesis is a cultural history of the grand century of American technology, from...August 21, 2019

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (James Fitzjames Stephen)Among the many idols of our age, there is one that rules them all:...August 16, 2019

Ibn Khaldun: An Intellectual Biography (Robert Irwin)I generally liked this book, by the erudite Orientalist Robert Irwin, but I am...August 9, 2019

Invisible Planets (Hannu Rajaniemi)I have always loathed the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen. Bleak, unhappy, and...August 7, 2019

The Thirty-Year Genocide: Turkey’s Destruction of Its Christian Minorities, 1894–1924 (Benny Morris and Dror Ze’evi)This book, a massive study by two Israeli historians, aspires to answer why and...August 6, 2019

Orbánland: How I Came To Understand Viktor Orbán’s Hungary And The Future Of Europe (Lasse Skytt)I am in an odd position with respect to Hungary. Because I’m half Hungarian,...July 31, 2019

The New Right: A Journey to the Fringe of American Politics (Michael Malice)The American conservative movement is traditionally dated to 1955, the date William F. Buckley...July 27, 2019

Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America (Chris Arnade)Last year, I went to the State Fair, and simply sat and watched the...July 24, 2019

Conformity: The Power of Social Influences (Cass R. Sunstein)In Conformity, Cass Sunstein takes common sense about how decisions are informed, and distorted,...July 20, 2019

On SpaceI am often asked to define my political program, Foundationalism. In essence, this is...July 13, 2019

Laughing Shall I Die: Lives and Deaths of the Great Vikings (Tom Shippey)In these days where man is held to be homo economicus, we are told...July 10, 2019

The Social Media Upheaval (Glenn Harlan Reynolds)Glenn Reynolds, the famous “Instapundit” and a law professor at the University of Tennessee,...July 6, 2019

Unmasking the Administrative State: The Crisis of American Politics in the Twenty-First Century (John Marini)Conservatives have long complained about the administrative state, the monster that swallowed America. Many...July 4, 2019

On CommunitarianismNot everyone buys my belief that we are fast heading, in America, to some...June 29, 2019

Christ the Conqueror of Hell: The Descent into Hades from an Orthodox Perspective (Hilarion Alfeyev)In recent months, I have talked a great deal about politics and current events....June 28, 2019

Theory of the Partisan: Intermediate Commentary on the Concept of the Political (Carl Schmitt)This is a book born of a particular time and place. The time was...June 21, 2019

The War on Normal People: The Truth About America’s Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income Is Our Future (Andrew Yang)Just in time for the first Democratic presidential debates, I have finished candidate Andrew...June 19, 2019

Built: The Hidden Stories Behind our Structures (Roma Agrawal)I have always found structural engineering fascinating, though I’m a consumer of the results,...June 17, 2019

Escaping the Russian Bear: An Estonian Girl’s Memoir of Loss and Survival During World War II (Kristina von Rosenvinge)I am fond of pointing out that the safety and security we think we...June 15, 2019

Hired: Undercover in Low-Wage Britain (James Bloodworth)James Bloodworth, an English sometime Trotskyite, has written a book which combines the television...June 13, 2019

Announcement: Narration Podcasts & Typeset PDFsI have often received complaints, or let’s call it feedback, that people would like...June 12, 2019

Roman Warfare (Adrian Goldsworthy)Adrian Goldsworthy is primarily known for lengthy, but highly readable, volumes on Roman history,...June 8, 2019

  • Live not by lies. — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
    Tell me who your enemy is and I will tell you who you are. — Carl Schmitt
    If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace; and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty. — Thomas Paine
    Some have the speed, and the right combinations / If you can't take the punches, it don't mean a thing. — Warren Zevon
    Naglfar, the ship of the apocalypse, shifts into a calculable position. — Ernst Jünger
     Timing is all. — Vladimir Lenin