Monthly Archives: October, 2016
Gentlemen’s Blood (Barbara Holland)
Barbara Holland’s “Gentlemen’s Blood” is a series of jaunty anecdotes about dueling through time and around the world. Most of it focuses on America...
Render Unto Caesar (Charles Chaput)
Charles Chaput, now archbishop of Philadelphia, is probably the most prominent traditionally orthodox Catholic prelate in America. There exists, of course, more than one...
The Romanovs (Simon Sebag Montefiore)
Most of us have only the dimmest idea of Russian history prior to the Soviet era. We’re vaguely aware that there were some Mongols,...
The Dragons of Expectation (Robert Conquest)
“The Dragons of Expectation,” subtitled “Reality and Delusion in the Course of History,” is a strange book. Basically, it’s a series of musings by...
Wiring Simplified: Based on the 2014 National Electrical Code (H.P. Richter et al.)
I have gradually come to realize the limitations of the Internet for providing information on technical subjects. Yes, a vast volume of information is...
Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline (Montesquieu)
In more educated times, “Considerations” was a famous book, regarded as the progenitor of modern “decline and fall” analyses. Broad in sweep but short...
A Torch Kept Lit (William F. Buckley)
Of late, I have noticed much creeping, or rather galloping, nostalgia among National Review-type conservatives. Such nostalgia is doubtless a reaction to the current...
The Screwtape Letters (C.S. Lewis)
Reviewing anything by C.S. Lewis seems presumptuous. Between the fame and erudition of the author, and the endless stream of reviews and analysis by...