The Worthy House • Toward A Politics of Future Past

I See Satan Fall Like Lightning (René Girard)

It has long been fashionable to regard Christianity as myth, no different in substance than many other ancient myths. Sometimes this is done to glibly dismiss Christ’s message; sometimes...

March 30, 2021

comments 32

Book Reviews, Charles, Christian History, Christian Theology, Classical History, Religion, Social Behavior

On the January 2021 Electoral Justice Protest

Published by Charles Haywood

On January 6, several thousand men and women made their voices heard—first around, and then some in, the United States Capitol. This event has received vast attention and been...

March 23, 2021

comments 50

American History, Analysis, Charles, Law, Political Discussion & Analysis, Social Behavior, Wars To Come

The Recovery of Family Life: Exposing the Limits of Modern Ideologies (Scott Yenor)

Published by Charles Haywood

You know what America needs? More mirrors for princes—the Renaissance genre of advice books directed at statesmen. On the Right, we have many books that identify, and complain about,...

March 10, 2021

comments 16

American History, Book Reviews, Charles, Law, Political Discussion & Analysis, Sex Roles, Social Behavior, Social Justice Warriors

Dark Emu (Bruce Pascoe)

Published by Charles Haywood

Americans do not understand Australia. At all. If Australia is brought up, they think of a few movie and television stars. They think of a vast red desert, perhaps,...

March 3, 2021

comments 26

Book Reviews, British History, Colonialism, Ethnography, Political Discussion & Analysis, Primitive Cultures, Social Behavior, The Orient

On the Brawndo Tyranny

Published by Charles Haywood

America was, for much of its existence, defined as a nation of laws, not men, in the famous phrase of John Adams. No more. Now men, but only some...

February 23, 2021

comments 43

Administrative State, American History, Analysis, Charles, Foundationalism, Law, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis, Post-Liberalism, Social Behavior, Wars To Come

Salazar (Tom Gallagher)

Published by Charles Haywood

What will be the political system of the future, in the lands that are still optimistically, or naively, viewed as containing one American nation? Certainly, the current system is...

February 15, 2021

comments 15

Biography & Autobiography, Book Reviews, Charles, Colonialism, European History, Foundationalism, Political Discussion & Analysis, Post-Liberalism

Kissinger: 1923–1968: The Idealist (Niall Ferguson)

Published by Charles Haywood

Did you know that Henry Kissinger is still alive? I didn’t, until I looked it up. (He’s ninety-seven years old.) Is he forgotten? I suspect so, by most people....

February 8, 2021

comments 18

American History, Biography & Autobiography, Book Reviews, Charles

Boomers: The Men and Women Who Promised Freedom and Delivered Disaster (Helen Andrews)

Published by Charles Haywood

What is a “baby boomer”? Technically, it is an American born between 1945 and 1964. More communicatively, a boomer is a member of the worst generation in American history,...

February 3, 2021

comments 26

American History, Book Reviews, Charles, Social Behavior

Always with Honor: The Memoirs of General Wrangel (Pyotr Wrangel)

Published by Charles Haywood

I recently wrote of the Finnish Civil War, where the Whites defeated the Reds. In the twentieth century, that pattern was unfortunately the exception, with the more common result...

January 29, 2021

comments 18

Biography & Autobiography, Book Reviews, Charles, Civil War, Communism, Eastern European History, European History, Military History, War, Wars To Come

The Shadow of Vesuvius: A Life of Pliny (Daisy Dunn)

Published by Charles Haywood

The Roman Empire gets a bad rap. This is particularly true of the members of its ruling class, who get the worse of the obvious comparison with Republican virtue,...

January 22, 2021

comments 3

Biography & Autobiography, Book Reviews, Charles, Classical History

Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook (Mark Bray)

Published by Charles Haywood

More than twenty years ago, as a very young man, I traveled in Ukraine. In one place, the local authorities were excavating a mass grave from the 1930s. Hundreds...

January 18, 2021

comments 21

American History, Book Reviews, Charles, Civil War, Communism, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis, Popular, Social Justice Warriors, War, Wars To Come

4th Generation Warfare Handbook (William S. Lind)

Published by Charles Haywood

2021 will be the twentieth anniversary of our endless, pointless war in Afghanistan, and 2023 the twentieth anniversary of our endless, pointless war in Iraq. This book, the ideas...

January 5, 2021

comments 15

Book Reviews, Charles, Military History, War

Retrotopia (John Michael Greer)

Published by Charles Haywood

What will the future look like? Not much like our stupid present, certainly, but complaining about the present is easy, while offering a coherent positive vision of the future...

January 1, 2021

comments 9

American History, Book Reviews, Charles, Civil War, Fiction, Political Discussion & Analysis, Political Economy, Social Behavior, Technology, War, Wars To Come

The Feminine Mystique (Betty Friedan)

Published by Charles Haywood

In their eternal quest to remake reality, a perennial target of the Left is the family: man, woman, and children, the bedrock of all human societies. The family, by...

December 28, 2020

comments 18

American History, Book Reviews, Charles, Foundationalism, Left-Liberalism, Life Advice, Political Discussion & Analysis, Political Economy, Post-Liberalism, Sex Roles, Social Behavior

Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation (Peter Cozzens)

Published by Charles Haywood

I have always been aware of the great Shawnee Indian war chief Tecumseh. I grew up within walking distance of the site of his confederacy’s defeat, by William Henry...

December 11, 2020

comments 17

American History, Biography & Autobiography, Book Reviews, Charles, Ethnography, Military History, Primitive Cultures, War

Light from the Christian East: An Introduction to the Orthodox Tradition (James R. Payton Jr.)

Published by Charles Haywood

I have always been keenly interested in comparative theology. However, as a recent adherent to Eastern Orthodoxy, I approach analysis, as opposed to knowledge, of Orthodox theology as presumptively...

December 3, 2020

comments 23

Book Reviews, Charles, Christian History, Christian Theology, Religion

On the Finnish Civil War

Published by Charles Haywood

You have likely never heard of the Finnish Civil War. A brief war, in some ways a simple war, it lasted only three months, from late January to late...

November 30, 2020

comments 13

Analysis, Charles, Civil War, Communism, Eastern European History, European History, Military History, Political Discussion & Analysis, Popular, War, Wars To Come

Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All (Michael Shellenberger)

Published by Charles Haywood

Whenever, which is often, I see in the media that “experts say . . . ,” I immediately assume what follows is lies. The utter tone-deafness of using this...

November 12, 2020

comments 11

Apocalypse, Book Reviews, Charles, Political Economy, Religion, Science, Technology

Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents (Rod Dreher)

Published by Charles Haywood

A disease is going around. No, not the Wuhan Plague. This malady only affects the Right, and I name it Scrutonism. The symptoms of Scrutonism are a razor-sharp ability...

October 19, 2020

comments 11

American History, Atheism, Book Reviews, Charles, Christian History, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis, Popular, Post-Liberalism, Religion, Social Behavior, Social Justice Warriors, Technology, Wars To Come

Long Shot: The Inside Story of the Kurdish Snipers Who Broke ISIS (Azad Cudi)

Published by Charles Haywood

This book appears, to the casual reader, to be propaganda designed to persuade a Great Power, the United States, to aid the Kurdish fight for independence. Like all good...

October 12, 2020

comments 14

Book Reviews, Charles, Colonialism, Communism, Islam & The Islamic World, Military History, The Orient, War

Neuromancer (William Gibson)

Published by Charles Haywood

When I first read Neuromancer, a science fiction classic of the modern age, twenty-some years ago, serious people believed that our certain technological future was one of accelerating, boundless...

October 9, 2020

comments 6

Book Reviews, Charles, Fiction, Science, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Technology

A Concise History of Finland (David Kirby)

Published by Charles Haywood

Who thinks much about Finland? During the Cold War, because of its buffer position, it was occasionally in the news. More recently, Nokia was prominent for a while. But...

October 1, 2020

comments 5

Book Reviews, Charles, Eastern European History, Ethnography, European History

Long Range Shooting Handbook: The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Precision Rifle Shooting (Ryan M. Cleckner)

Published by Charles Haywood

Si vis pacem, para bellum. If you wish for peace, prepare for war. So said the Romans. But there is a corollary, another truth, also as old as mankind....

September 25, 2020

comments 5

Apocalypse, Book Reviews, Charles, Civil War, Guns, Left-Liberalism, Political Discussion & Analysis, War, Wars To Come

The Soul of an Entrepreneur: Work and Life Beyond the Startup Myth (David Sax)

Published by Charles Haywood

The “why” of entrepreneurship varies by entrepreneur. My core “why” is money. I want, and have always wanted, money, for what money can do. Whether that is avarice, or...

September 22, 2020

comments 11

Book Reviews, Business & Money, Charles, Economics, Life Advice, Political Economy, Practical Skills