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# The Worthy House • Towards A Politics of Future Past

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## Posts

- [<em>Red State Mars</em> (Travis Corcoran)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2026/07/09/red-state-mars-travis-corcoran/) - The great civilizations of mankind, few in number but everything that really matters in the history of our species, always require an internal common goal to bind them together and pull them forward. Bare life is not enough; what impels a civilization to the heights, what inspires its accomplishment, is the drive to create splendid
- [<em>The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in An Age of Diminishing Expectations</em> (Christopher Lasch)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2026/05/16/the-culture-of-narcissism-american-life-in-an-age-of-diminishing-expectations-christopher-lasch/) - This is a strange book. Christopher Lasch, who published The Culture of Narcissism in 1979, wrote this sociological study at what seemed like the nadir of American vitality. His book freezes in time the moment Lasch, a prominent left-oriented social analyst who moved rightwards before he died in 1994, was turning fully against leftism, but
- [<em>The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics</em> (Christopher Lasch)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/03/04/the-true-and-only-heaven-progress-and-its-critics-christopher-lasch/) - It is common knowledge that the vast majority of sociology is completely worthless, or worse than worthless, and that “social science” is an oxymoron. Still, the study of the societies of man can be a worthwhile discipline, as a branch of humanities, not the sciences. To be sure, the number of modern authors writing in
- [<em>The Foundationalist Manifesto: The Politics of Future Past</em>](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/06/17/the-foundationalist-manifesto-the-politics-of-future-past/) - I am here to give you back your future. Like Yeats’s golden bird, I will tell you of what is past, and passing, and to come. Here I offer an exposition of my, and what should be our, political program, both philosophy and movement, Foundationalism. What is Foundationalism? Foundationalism is a reflection of reality, and
- [<em>Rome and Persia: The Seven Hundred Year Rivalry</em> (Adrian Goldsworthy)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2026/04/27/rome-and-persia-the-seven-hundred-year-rivalry-adrian-goldsworthy/) - Americans, sadly, know almost nothing about the history of Persia. Of itself, this doesn’t mean a great deal, since most Americans don’t know much about the history of anywhere. But today, as America attacks Iran, that is, Persia, at the behest of Israel for the benefit of Israel, this gap in knowledge has real, deleterious
- [<em>Edwin Arlington Robinson: A Poet's Life</em> (Scott Donaldson)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/10/17/book-review-edwin-arlington-robinson-a-poets-life-scott-donaldson/) - I have zero creative talent. The pinnacle of my own ability to draw is stick figures, and not good ones. I cannot sing or play an instrument. I cannot write fiction. I do not understand iambic pentameter. Thus, I tend not to express any opinion about poetry, and I certainly don’t write any. But I
- [<em>The Nomos of the Earth in the International Law of the Jus Publicum Europaeum</em> (Carl Schmitt)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2026/04/13/the-nomos-of-the-earth-in-the-international-law-of-the-jus-publicum-europaeum-carl-schmitt/) - An evil stench has accompanied the term “new world order” ever since George H. W. Bush used it in 1990, formally inaugurating the American Regime’s attempt to subjugate the globe to Left hegemony, dubbed liberal democracy to hide the poison. Nonetheless, it is certainly true, as a simple statement of fact, that we do indeed
- [<em>End of the Road: Inside the War on Truckers</em> (Gord Magill)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2026/03/17/end-of-the-road-inside-the-war-on-truckers-gord-magill/) - A few months ago, I showed our young children 1977’s “Smokey and the Bandit.” As with so many movies that are more than twenty years old, watching it is like stepping into a different, far better world, before end-stage civilizational enervation exacerbated by Left ideology utterly destroyed the fiber of America. One could write an
- [<em>Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup</em> (John Carreyrou)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/05/24/book-review-bad-blood-secrets-lies-silicon-valley-startupjohn-carreyrou/) - 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 more a tale of human foibles. These were expertly played on by Elizabeth Holmes, a very young woman of little productive talent and no particular evident
- [<em>Long Shot: The Inside Story of the Kurdish Snipers Who Broke ISIS</em> (Azad Cudi)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/10/12/long-shot-the-inside-story-of-the-kurdish-snipers-who-broke-isis-azad-cudi/) - 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 wartime propaganda, it grabs the reader’s attention and tugs at his heartstrings. But it’s double propaganda, cleverly done, because beneath the top layer of propaganda is
- [<em>Kings in the North: The House of Percy in British History</em> (Alexander Rose)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2026/03/04/kings-in-the-north-the-house-of-percy-in-british-history-alexander-rose/) - Cicero described Julius Caesar as a man “of supreme daring, hardened to every risk.” In our hyper-feminized age, such men seem nonexistent, though more likely they are quietly biding their time, and will emerge when the time is right. Such rarity, however, is anomalous in the West, as this book shows. Kings in the North
- [<em>The Anglo-Saxons: The Making of England: 410–1066</em> (Marc Morris)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/10/10/the-anglo-saxons-the-making-of-england-410-1066-marc-morris/) - England, fabled land of legend and destiny, is over. When you combine a degraded native populace unwilling to replenish itself with a ruling class that is among the most evil and stupid in history, which along with other malignant attacks on those it rules eagerly imports endless alien invaders in order replace the native population,
- [<em>Rise and Grind: Outperform, Outwork, and Outhustle Your Way to a More Successful and Rewarding Life</em> (Daymond John)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/04/30/rise-and-grind-outperform-outwork-and-outhustle-your-way-to-a-more-successful-and-rewarding-life-daymond-john/) - 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 David Byrne, I too ask myself, how did I get here, with my beautiful house, and my beautiful wife, and large automobile? Such thoughts bounce around
- [<em>Tom Wedderburn's Life</em> (Theodore Judson)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2026/01/30/tom-wedderburns-life-theodore-judson/) - In the perhaps-unfortunate words of the Declaration of Independence, men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, [and] among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The words are unfortunate, 250 years later, because modernity has assigned to “liberty” and “happiness” much different meanings than those intended by Thomas Jefferson. The
- [<em>The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity</em> (Tim Wu)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2026/01/02/the-age-of-extraction-how-tech-platforms-conquered-the-economy-and-threaten-our-future-prosperity-tim-wu/) - Tim Wu is the Jeremiah of our age. For twenty years, his has been one of the very few nuanced voices attacking concentrations of economic power as destructive of a flourishing society. Yes, others also attack such concentrations, but they are mere looters, and Wu instead wants a stronger society. His message has struggled to
- [<em>On Power: The Natural History of Its Growth</em> (Bertrand de Jouvenel)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/12/27/on-power-the-natural-history-of-its-growth-bertrand-de-jouvenel/) - For years, I put off reading On Power, despite seeing frequent references to it. The book seemed, as filtered through online discourse (my first mistake), to be merely another tedious libertarian manifesto. Moreover, dimwits on the internet often falsely cite this book for the supposed irrelevance of popular discontent to regime change, a very stupid
- [Announcement: Cross-Posting to Substack](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/12/30/announcement-cross-posting-to-substack/) - This site has been the primary publishing spot for my writing for nearly ten years and more than six hundred (!) articles. This is not going to change. However, I am now cross-posting to Substack. Readers may also want to subscribe (for free, of course; there is no paid option) at Substack, if you generally
- [<em>Stoner</em> (John Williams)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/07/21/stoner-john-williams/) - When I was very young, my mother told me that the chief value of good fiction is it allows the reader to better understand other men and women. Even so, I have never read much fiction. Moreover, most of what I do read is science fiction, which is usually not “good” in the sense of
- [<em>The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age</em> (Tim Wu)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/11/18/book-review-the-curse-of-bigness-antitrust-in-the-new-gilded-age-tim-wu/) - 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 the latter will become used to each other soon enough. Such once-settled matters include hot-button cultural matters like nationalism, but also dry, technical matters of little
- [<em>The Unprotected Class: How Anti-White Racism Is Tearing America Apart</em> (Jeremy Carl)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/05/16/the-unprotected-class-how-anti-white-racism-is-tearing-america-apart-jeremy-carl/) - A society, or part of it, always adopts definite modes of thought, speech, and action. And in time, inevitably, at least in modernity, those modes shift radically. What was once unthinkable suddenly becomes not only thinkable, but is everywhere, and the change is unstoppable, at all levels. This process has little to do with rational
- [<em>The Total State: How Liberal Democracies Become Tyrannies</em> (Auron MacIntyre)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/07/17/the-total-state-how-liberal-democracies-become-tyrannies-auron-macintyre/) - For many Americans, the Constitution is their spirit animal, which protects and guides them. Never mind that how we are ruled bears very little resemblance to the actual Constitution, or that the Regime pays no attention whatsoever to it, except as an inconvenient speed bump on their way to imposing complete Left dominance. Conservatives nonetheless
- [<em>The Populist Delusion</em> (Neema Parvini)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/09/05/the-populist-delusion-neema-parvini/) - What is populism? The snap answer is rule by the people. The more accurate answer is rule by an elite who strongly claim that they govern on behalf of the whole people. That claim is sometimes true and sometimes false, but as Neema Parvini’s The Populist Delusion, a compact summary of what is often called
- [<em>Leaving a Legacy: Inheritance, Charity, & Thousand-Year Families</em> (Johann Kurtz)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/11/24/leaving-a-legacy-inheritance-charity-thousand-year-families-johann-kurtz/) - The Great Commission of the modern age is not to bring the Gospel to all nations. It is to CONSOOM! Thus, a man’s perceived success in life is determined mostly by how many resources he can burn through before death, maximizing his hedonic inputs. Leaving a Legacy is a sweeping rejection of this pernicious philosophy,
- [On Francisco Franco](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/04/16/on-francisco-franco/) - 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 a famous world figure. Now he is forgotten—but not by all. Franco is, and has been for decades, a cause célèbre among the global Left, seen
- [<em>Three New Deals: Reflections on Roosevelt's America, Mussolini's Italy, and Hitler's Germany, 1933-1939</em> (Wolfgang Schivelbusch)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/11/26/book-review-three-new-deals-reflections-on-roosevelts-america-mussolinis-italy-and-hitlers-germany-1933-1939-wolfgang-schivelbusch/) - This book, a brief work of cultural history, outlines four parallel aspects of three political systems: the American New Deal, Italian Fascism, and German National Socialism. The point of Three New Deals is that these political systems shared core similarities in certain programmatic manifestations. The author, Wolfgang Schivelbusch, fortunately does not claim that the three
- [<em>The Collapse of Global Liberalism: And the Emergence of the Post Liberal World Order</em> (Philip Pilkington)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/12/08/the-collapse-of-global-liberalism-and-the-emergence-of-the-post-liberal-world-order-philip-pilkington/) - We all want to know comes next, because we sense that it will be very different from what came before. This is a book not so much about our uncertain future, but about why a massive change is inevitable. The author, Philip Pilkington, aims to shake the reader from his slumber, and make him realize
- [<em>Theory of the Partisan: Intermediate Commentary on the Concept of the Political</em> (Carl Schmitt)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/06/21/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 1962; the place was postwar Europe. The West was frozen in the glare of spreading Communism, paralyzed by the catastrophic end of the old European system and wholly uncertain of the path forward. Since that time, the ice has broken and
- [<em>Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter</em> (Scott Adams)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/08/05/book-review-win-bigly-persuasion-world-facts-dont-matter-scott-adams/) - Would you like to read a book about Scott Adams? Then this is your book, especially if you want to hear Scott Adams talk about how awesome he is. Would you like to read a book about persuasion techniques? This book may shed a little light, maybe two pages’ worth. Would you like to read
- [<em>Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity</em> (Paul Kingsnorth)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/11/12/against-the-machine-on-the-unmaking-of-humanity-paul-kingsnorth/) - In the Book of Daniel, the prophet interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of an awesome statue. It boasts a golden head and silver body, but it has feet of iron mixed with clay. And when those feet are smashed, the precious metals collapse, becoming “like dust on the summer threshing floor, and a great force of wind
- [<em>Red Rising</em> (Pierce Brown)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/05/04/red-rising-pierce-brown/) - “I would have lived in peace, but my enemies brought me war.” This is the attention-grabbing opening line of Red Rising, the first book in a popular young-adult science fiction trilogy, published between 2014 and 2016. The author, Pierce Brown, aims to draw Space Rome in roughly A.D. 3000. Within these books (the other two
- [<em>In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife</em> (Sebastian Junger)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/09/30/in-my-time-of-dying-how-i-came-face-to-face-with-the-idea-of-an-afterlife-sebastian-junger/) - I am not sure how often most people think about death. For myself, I think about my death several dozen times per day. This is not a morbid fixation, merely focused self-interest combined with practicality. I have never understood those who refuse to think about their own deaths, or who do things such as decline
- [<em>Cornwallis: Soldier and Statesman in a Revolutionary World</em> (Richard Middleton)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/09/22/cornwallis-soldier-and-statesman-in-a-revolutionary-world-richard-middleton/) - To the extent most people ever think about Charles, Earl Cornwallis, they think of him as portrayed in Mel Gibson’s film The Patriot. There he is an aged, somewhat hapless, conflicted military officer, ultimately defeated at Yorktown, whereupon he sails back to England in disgrace. Little of this is true, and his life after the
- [<em>The Essential Paul Gottfried: Essays from 1984–2024</em> (Paul Gottfried)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/08/22/the-essential-paul-gottfried-essays-from-1984-2024-paul-gottfried/) - Paul Gottfried is a great man, and you should read this book. He has spent decades offering a consistent political message, paleoconservatism, a name he coined. Of itself, his philosophy would certainly be of interest, an important thread in decades of ferment on the Right. What makes Gottfried and his thought unique, however, is that
- [On the United Kingdom, and 1989 Eastern Europe as Harbinger](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/08/18/on-the-united-kingdom-and-1989-eastern-europe-as-harbinger/) - As the cliché goes, history does not repeat, but it does rhyme. Thirty-five years ago the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe collapsed overnight, something that nobody in the West had foreseen. It turned out, contrary to the firm conclusion of all our vaunted intelligence apparatuses, that every one of those regimes was a paper tiger.
- [<em>The Demon In Democracy</em> (Ryszard Legutko)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/01/19/book-review-the-demon-in-democracy-ryszard-legutko/) - There is a scene in Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks, in which a character comes across a book of philosophy (Schopenhauer) and realizes in a soaring epiphany that it contains the answers to all of life’s questions. For me, this book served much the same purpose—it explained to me why certain things are the way they are
- [<em>Uncivil Society: 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist Establishment</em> (Stephen Kotkin)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/02/07/uncivil-society-1989-and-the-implosion-of-the-communist-establishment-stephen-kotkin/) - How will our current regime fall? That’s what we all want to know. For those who have eyes to see, it is obvious the American regime is extremely fragile. It awaits only the inevitable crisis for it to collapse. I am staking my reputation, such as it is, on this claim. But because we cannot
- [<em>A Medieval Life: Cecilia Penifader and the World of English Peasants Before the Plague</em> (Judith M. Bennett)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/06/17/a-medieval-life-cecilia-penifader-and-the-world-of-english-peasants-before-the-plague-judith-m-bennett/) - History is the story of what resulted from the acts of great men, directly and indirectly, buffeted by fortune. Thus, in the Middle Ages, as in every age, what the common people did in their daily lives never drove history. Nonetheless, their lives can be of interest, both to specialists and generalists. Moreover, studying the
- [On the Future Ascent of a Caesar](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/10/12/on-the-future-ascent-of-a-caesar/) - I recently wrote about what might happen after an American Caesar, a radical reconstructor of our polity, arose. And in these days of American humiliation and accelerating decay, a Caesar is viewed by many, if in quiet tones, as a kind of solution. But is Caesar, Michael Anton’s Red Caesar, merely a coping mechanism for
- [<em>John Chrysostom on the Roman Empire: A Study on the Political Thought of the Early Church</em> (Constantine Bozinis)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/05/22/john-chrysostom-on-the-roman-empire-a-study-on-the-political-thought-of-the-early-church-constantine-bozinis/) - In late modernity a strange delusion has taken hold among many Christians. They have come to believe that democracy, broad popular participation in how a society is governed, is a morally superior political system, even one desired by God, rather than simply one among many, and perhaps one both morally and practically worse than any
- [<em>Sons of the Waves: The Common Seaman in the Heroic Age of Sail</em> (Stephen Taylor)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/06/06/sons-of-the-waves-the-common-seaman-in-the-heroic-age-of-sail-stephen-taylor/) - Among the first books I read, when around five years of age, were some written by my great uncle, Charles Frye Haywood, after whom I am named. He was a lawyer in Lynn, Massachusetts, but his life’s interest was men and events related to Colonial times, especially sailing vessels. This is no surprise, perhaps, given
- [<em>Russia Enters the Railway Age, 1842–1855</em> (Richard Mowbray Haywood)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/04/11/russia-enters-the-railway-age-1842-1855-richard-mowbray-haywood/) - The history of nineteenth-century Russia does not get much attention in the West, and what little it does get usually focuses on people and events seen as precursors to Russia’s chaotic later history. As a result, any English-language book on the period, and there are not many, tends to be written by and directed toward
- [<em>Stubborn Attachments: A Vision for a Society of Free, Prosperous, and Responsible Individuals</em> (Tyler Cowen)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/12/07/stubborn-attachments-a-vision-for-a-society-of-free-prosperous-and-responsible-individuals-tyler-cowen/) - Finally, the age of sophisters and calculators has fully arrived, and its herald is Tyler Cowen. He, economist and blogger, is here to tell us the purpose of life. It is to die with the most toys. Well, that, plus maximum freedom to do whatever we want with our toys while we are still alive.
- [<em>Revolver: Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter That Changed America</em> (Jim Rasenberger)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/03/31/revolver-sam-colt-and-the-six-shooter-that-changed-america-jim-rasenberger/) - Every so often, some cretin threatens me on X, formerly known as Twitter. These soyboy types tend to lead by saying I appear weak and fragile. I doubt I would lose a physical fight, certainly against these degenerate specimens, even though it has been many years since I actually fought. I may be aging, but
- [<em>The Life and Legend of the Sultan Saladin</em> (Jonathan Phillips)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/03/11/the-life-and-legend-of-the-sultan-saladin-jonathan-phillips/) - In the classic 1970s Irish Republican Army anthem “My Little Armalite,” the lyrics include “Well the army came to visit me, ’twas in the early hours / With Saladins and Saracens and Ferret armored cars.” One wonders why would the British, back when there still was an England, name their military equipment after the Kurdish
- [<em>The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History</em> (Tonio Andrade)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/11/09/book-review-the-gunpowder-age-china-military-innovation-and-the-rise-of-the-west-in-world-history-tonio-andrade/) - The Gunpowder Age succeeds in its lesser goal, which is convincing the reader that the common belief the Chinese only used gunpowder for fireworks is wrong. But it fails in its greater goal, which is convincing the reader that except for a brief period in recent history, China has been the equal of the West
- [<em>Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism</em> (James Stevens Curl)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/08/27/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 a sinew binding state and people, the ruling class and the masses. Low architecture, that of daily living and daily use, is key to satisfaction in the life of a populace. Thus, a coherent and uplifting architecture, high and low, is,
- [On the “Dark Enlightenment,” and of Curtis Yarvin / Mencius Moldbug](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/06/27/analysis-dark-enlightenment-curtis-yarvin-mencius-moldbug/) - My project here is to analyze, in the detail required for all necessary understanding, the thought of Curtis Yarvin, who wrote under the pseudonym Mencius Moldbug. Yarvin is the most prominent figure of what has been called the Dark Enlightenment, one thread of modern reactionary thought. My short summary is that he offers mediocre analysis
- [<em>The Ancient City</em> (Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/02/18/the-ancient-city-numa-denis-fustel-de-coulanges/) - Two things about the past are simultaneously true. First, that men and women of history, even distant history, were not, in their essence, different from us. The nature of man does not change. Second, that the past is a foreign country, often a wholly alien country. The Ancient City, a reconstruction of the development of
- [Against Gross Domestic Product](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/02/13/against-gross-domestic-product/) - If twenty-first-century America has an idol, a graven image we collectively worship, it is Gross Domestic Product. All discussion about the flourishing of our nation is reduced to GDP, and its increase seen as an ironclad refutation of any who question whether America is, in fact, flourishing. But GDP, as today calculated, is largely fake,
- [<em>Life in a Medieval City</em> (Frances Gies and Joseph Gies)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/04/10/book-review-life-in-a-medieval-city-frances-gies-and-joseph-gies/) - The modern mind is very susceptible to viewing the past as wholly different, and worse, from the present. We have all absorbed narratives of supposed progress that rely on painting the past in the grimmest light possible. But the daily lives of most people were not that different, and not less happy, at any given
- [<em>Oliver Cromwell: Commander in Chief</em> (Ronald Hutton)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/02/03/oliver-cromwell-commander-in-chief-ronald-hutton/) - Most know about the English Civil War, and that it ended with the execution of Charles I, in 1649. But this is not really true. That war, the First English Civil War, which alone killed, directly and indirectly, around five percent of the English population, was merely part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms,
- [<em>The Leviathan in the State Theory of Thomas Hobbes: Meaning and Failure of a Political Symbol</em> (Carl Schmitt)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/01/29/the-leviathan-in-the-state-theory-of-thomas-hobbes-meaning-and-failure-of-a-political-symbol-carl-schmitt/) - In this challenging book, Carl Schmitt analyzes the modern state through the life and death of the Leviathan state of Thomas Hobbes. Leviathan, the “mortal god,” dominated the early modern era, but contained within itself the seeds of its own destruction, the shattering of the unified all-powerful state into the dual spheres of private and
- [<em>The White King: Charles I, Traitor, Murderer, Martyr</em> (Leanda de Lisle)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/10/17/the-white-king-charles-i-traitor-murderer-martyr-leanda-de-lisle/) - As with Nicholas II, the last ruling Romanov, how we view Charles I is largely set by how his days ended. And as with Nicholas, we have been further conditioned by generations of propaganda pumped out by the winners and their ideological allies, claiming that it was Charles’s own bad philosophy, coupled with incompetence, rather
- [<em>The Enemy: An Intellectual Portrait of Carl Schmitt</em> (Gopal Balakrishnan)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/11/12/book-review-the-enemy-an-intellectual-portrait-of-carl-schmitt-gopal-balakrishnan/) - Carl Schmitt, preeminent antiliberal, is that rare thing, the modern political philosopher relevant long after his time. The simple remember him only for his grasping embrace of National Socialism, but the more astute, especially on the Left, have in recent times found much to ponder in Schmitt’s protean writings. He did not offer ideology, as
- [<em>The Martian General's Daughter</em> (Theodore Judson)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/01/21/the-martian-generals-daughter-theodore-judson/) - What is America? This may seem like a strange question to ask after reading a book titled The Martian General’s Daughter. But it is the most important question that we who live in the lands today known as the United States of America must answer. Are we an empire, or a nation? If empire, can
- [On Battlefield V](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/01/16/on-battlefield-v/) - 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 different time period; this one recreates World War II. Such games are very popular; successful titles can take in considerably more than $1 billion for their
- [<em>Anabasis; </em>Or, <em>The March Up-Country</em> (Xenophon)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/01/19/anabasis-or-the-march-up-country-xenophon/) - Are you often disheartened by the world around us? Do you see almost nothing but enervation and cowardice displayed in public life? Of course you are, and you do, or you’re not paying any attention. But it does not have to be this way. Read, instead of your Twitter feed or the latest regime propaganda,
- [<em>The Fate of Empires</em> (John Bagot Glubb)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/03/31/emthe-fate-of-empires-em-john-bagot-glubb/) - What Americans need now is a cheery book that assures us how our global power and hegemony are destined to last, if not forever, for a good deal longer. This is not that book. The Fate of Empires is an obscure work, by an obscure man. Yet it apparently still has a following today, because
- [<em>A Brutal Reckoning: Andrew Jackson, the Creek Indians, and the Epic War for the American South</em> (Peter Cozzens)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/12/28/a-brutal-reckoning-andrew-jackson-the-creek-indians-and-the-epic-war-for-the-american-south-peter-cozzens/) - I have long been fascinated by the wars between the European settlers of America and those whom they conquered and displaced, the American Indians. I grew up near a famous battlefield memorial of those wars; maybe that is the reason I have often wondered why it is that in North America, unlike in other conquered
- [On Private Justice](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/12/16/on-private-justice/) - For eighty years, Superman’s motto was “Truth, Justice, and the American Way!” In 2020, at the apogee of unchallenged Left power, it changed to “Truth, Justice, and a Better Tomorrow!” In the fantasy world of comics, only one clause mutated. But in the real world, all three clauses have been transformed into their opposite. Truth
- [On the 1956 Hungarian Revolution](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/11/19/on-the-1956-hungarian-revolution/) - In these latter days, we are told man should be made new, and if that fails, we can replace him with thinking machines. The past is therefore denigrated, largely a blank. Now, most history is obscure, except where memory is kept alive by frequent reference to some event, usually for purposes of propaganda. Thus, we
- [<em>Holy Rus': The Rebirth of Orthodoxy in the New Russia</em> (John P. Burgess)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/12/03/holy-rus-the-rebirth-of-orthodoxy-in-the-new-russia-john-p-burgess/) - Americans don’t understand the Russians. Americans don’t even try to understand the Russians, for the most part. I don’t understand the Russians, even if I should, given that my father was a professor of Russian history. But comprehending the Russians is crucial to our future, because contrary to the pronouncements of morons, Russia is not
- [<em>To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism</em> (Sean McMeekin)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/10/03/to-overthrow-the-world-the-rise-and-fall-and-rise-of-communism-sean-mcmeekin/) - Unlike the cats grilled by the illegals invited by our rulers to invade once-decent towns all over America, Communism has nine lives, or more. Why is it that Communism, the most destructive and evil ideology in the history of mankind, always takes a licking and keeps on ticking? The short answer is that Communism is
- [On the Left as Scorpion: Election and Post-Election Predictions](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/11/04/on-the-left-as-scorpion-election-and-post-election-predictions/) - Anyone who predicts the future risks beclowning and humiliating himself, usually for little return. Better to offer Nostradamus-like pronouncements, susceptible to many interpretations, so you can later retcon the predictions you make. Nonetheless, the outline of the immediate future for America is clearer than most futures, because we are repeating a pattern that has occurred
- [<em>Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents</em> (Rod Dreher)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/10/19/live-not-by-lies-a-manual-for-christian-dissidents-rod-dreher/) - 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 to identify one’s enemies and to understand their plans to destroy us, combined with a complete inability to imagine any way in which those enemies can
- [Recent Appearances (October 2024)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/10/22/recent-appearances-october-2024/) - I was honored to appear in the past three months in nine different venues. Programs where I appeared, in order, have been (with links below): 1) With Kruptos, and other luminaries, on the Christian Ghetto Podcast, we talk about America, and what the relationship of Christians is and should be to America. 2) On the
- [“The China Convergence” (N. S. Lyons)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/09/11/the-china-convergence-n-s-lyons/) - We Americans sense that we live in an empire of lies. We want to understand the people and systems which control our country and society. At a minimum, we want to know how and by whom we are ruled, and what that means for both the present and the future. But we can trust no
- [<em>Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence</em> (Bryan Burrough)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/09/04/days-of-rage-americas-radical-underground-the-fbi-and-the-forgotten-age-of-revolutionary-violence-bryan-burrough/) - Never in history has targeted violence by individuals or small groups, killings and bombings, what the Russians once called “propaganda of the deed,” ever led to the replacement of a governing system, or even triggered significant societal change. Yet for the Left such acts have proved irresistible since the mid-nineteenth century. In keeping with this
- [<em>The Habsburg Way: Seven Rules for Turbulent Times</em> (Eduard Habsburg)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/08/14/the-habsburg-way-seven-rules-for-turbulent-times-eduard-habsburg/) - Mirrors for princes, books of advice aimed at those who rule, have fallen out of style in our modern, supposedly democratic age. Books of advice for commoners, however, are ubiquitous, though most of them are stupid, because wisdom comes from experience, not rumination, and most authors offer only the latter. Eduard Habsburg, scion of the
- [On Cancellation and the Use of Power](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/07/30/on-cancellation-and-the-use-of-power/) - At the risk of being viewed as a Boomer, which I am not, let us ponder the immortal lyrics of the band Kansas, from 1977: “I close my eyes / Only for a moment, and the moment’s gone.” Such a moment sparked for the American Right, a few weeks ago—the feeling that we were on
- [<em>Coup d'État: A Practical Handbook  </em> (Edward Luttwak)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/08/27/book-review-coup-detat-practical-handbook-edward-luttwak/) - Given that zombie survival manuals and similar how-to books are today all the rage, on sale at every Costco, Edward Luttwak’s Coup d’État: A Practical Handbook seems like a selection from the same genre. Namely, of somewhat jokey books that purport to tell you what to do in a strange, disastrous situation, while effectively acknowledging
- [<em>Conservatism: A Rediscovery</em> (Yoram Hazony)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/01/28/conservatism-a-rediscovery-yoram-hazony/) - Yoram Hazony’s Conservatism, a masterful work, is the book Patrick Deneen’s Regime Change should have been. Hazony explains how we got here, who our enemies are, why they
- [<em>Life, on the Line: A Chef's Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat</em> (Grant Achatz)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/06/25/life-on-the-line-a-chefs-story-of-chasing-greatness-facing-death-and-redefining-the-way-we-eat-grant-achatz/) - What we see as history is always downstream from the actions of great men, working with the challenges given them. Such men are very rare, and their necessary traits include extreme discipline and focus, as well as unstinting demand on themselves for achievement. It is not only in making history that such a rare man
- [Against Nostalgia](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/06/19/against-nostalgia/) - Do you want your teddy bear? If you are on the Right, you probably do. All around your enemies celebrate their endless triumphs over you. They steal your wealth, trans your children, and scream for your death. You can do nothing, because they control all the levers of power, and lust to use them violently
- [<em>Fascism: The Career of a Concept</em> (Paul Gottfried)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/06/12/fascism-the-career-of-a-concept-paul-gottfried/) - What is fascism? Generically, it is a political philosophy, but what is its content? The word today is almost always used simply as an infinitely flexible synonym for “enemy of the Left,” but fascism was once a real thing, even though it has long disappeared from actual politics. Paul Gottfried, who has forgotten far more
- [Recent Appearances (May 2024)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/05/30/recent-appearances-may-2024/) - I was honored to appear in the past three months in six different venues. Programs where I appeared, in order, have been (with links below): 1) With Eric Conn, on the Hard Men Podcast, we talk about NEOTR, Franco, and The Camp of the Saints. 2) On the Chronicles podcast, with C. Jay Engel, of
- [Recent Appearances (February 2024)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/02/15/recent-appearances-february-2024/) - I was honored to appear in the past two months in nine (!) different venues. Both topical topics and matters other than politics were discussed. Programs where I appeared, in order, have been (with links below): 1) With the Old Glory Club, on Pony Express Radio, "to discuss the FBI still existing, rapid kinetic disassembly
- [My Speech at the Natal Conference](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/04/30/my-speech-at-the-natal-conference/) - For quite some time, long before Elon Musk, I have claimed that the coming population crash is the most significant mechanical (that is, non-spiritual) problem facing the West. Last December, I attended and spoke at the first Natal Conference, which brought together reality-focused men and women to search for solutions. My speech focused on the
- [Natal Conference 2023](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/05/15/natal-conference-2023/) - For quite some time, several years, long before Elon Musk, I have claimed that the coming population crash is the most significant mechanical (that is, non-spiritual) problem facing the West. This December 1 and 2, in Austin, the first Natal Conference will take place. It aims to bring together reality-focused men and women of keen
- [<em>Prince Henry the Navigator: A Life</em> (Peter Russell)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/04/22/prince-henry-the-navigator-a-life-peter-russell/) - Henry the Navigator, prince of Portugal, never king although he often acted as if he were, made the modern world. He lived from 1394 to 1460, and it was through him that Europe began its unprecedented domination of the globe. By sheer strength of will he initiated the Age of Exploration, so for half a
- [<em>Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire</em> (Roger Crowley)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/08/15/conquerors-how-portugal-forged-the-first-global-empire-roger-crowley/) - Without specific intention, I seem to have turned into a Roger Crowley fanboy, as shown by that I have now read every one of his books. Crowley is a British maritime historian, all of whose books are tied to the Mediterranean in the pre-modern portion of the second millennium, many centering around the interaction of
- [<em>King of Dogs</em> (Andrew Edwards)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/04/05/king-of-dogs-andrew-edwards/) - When Americans think of apocalyptic futures, we usually think of the apocalypse itself, whatever that might be. We have a morbid fascination with its totalizing effect, whether asteroid strike, zombie plague or nuclear war. The truth is, however, that the worse the situation in which a man finds himself, the less he cares about the
- [<em>July 1914: Countdown to War</em> (Sean McMeekin)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/03/26/july-1914-countdown-to-war-sean-mcmeekin/) - For some years now, Americans have lived through a chaotic series of events unprecedented in modern times. Still, some say “nothing ever happens.” They argue that these apparently dramatic crises, from the Russo-Ukraine War to Texas governor Greg Abbott’s recent challenge to the federal government, are meaningless ephemera which change nothing about our underlying situation.
- [<em>Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook</em> (Mark Bray)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/01/18/antifa-the-anti-fascist-handbook-mark-bray/) - 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 of skeletons, men and women, many with flesh and clothes still attached, had been laid out on wooden platforms, for attempted identification before reburial. If you
- [Throw-Back Thursday: <em>Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation</em> (Peter Cozzens)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/03/21/throw-back-thursday-tecumseh-and-the-prophet-the-shawnee-brothers-who-defied-a-nation-peter-cozzens/) - [Of the famous Indian war chief Tecumseh, and of men of destiny. This article was originally published December 11, 2020.] 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 Harrison at the Battle of Tippecanoe,
- [<em>Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation</em> (Peter Cozzens)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/12/11/tecumseh-and-the-prophet-the-shawnee-brothers-who-defied-a-nation-peter-cozzens/) - [Of the famous Indian war chief Tecumseh, and of men of destiny. This article was originally published December 11, 2020.] 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 Harrison at the Battle of Tippecanoe,
- [<em>Lord of All the Dead</em> (Javier Cercas)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/04/22/lord-of-all-the-dead-javier-cercas/) - Years ago, I lived in Budapest with an elderly Hungarian relative, my grandfather’s cousin. She had lived through World War II as a young woman. One day, as we were eating lunch, she reminisced about the Russian invasion and conquest of Hungary in 1945, which she survived. She looked at me and said (in Hungarian),
- [<em>The Camp of the Saints</em> (Jean Raspail)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/03/05/the-camp-of-the-saints-jean-raspail/) - We often hear hysterical lies about “banned books,” meaning any work that has ever been criticized by anyone on the Right. But all such books are freely available, globally, to anyone, in multiple editions, in all formats and from all major vendors. The only books actually banned are Right books, and there are multitudes of
- [What to Do When Caesar Comes](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/09/10/what-to-do-when-caesar-comes/) - Is a Caesar, an authoritarian reconstructor of our institutions, soon to step onto the American stage? A betting man would say yes.
- [<em>Elon Musk</em> (Walter Isaacson)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/02/26/elon-musk-walter-isaacson/) - My positive opinions about Elon Musk are not popular on the Right. Many say he is untrustworthy. Not our friend. Controlled opposition. But some of what they say is wrong, and the rest is irrelevant. Musk is the most likely candidate to break the Regime which rules us, simply because he must, in order to
- [<em>The Power of the Powerless</em> (Václav Havel)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/05/18/book-review-power-powerless-vaclav-havel/) - 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 a new creeping totalitarianism, this time in the West itself. Such timelessness is the signature of a classic work, so my goal today is to explicate
- [<em>Life in the Negative World: Confronting Challenges in an Anti-Christian Culture</em> (Aaron M. Renn)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/02/16/life-in-the-negative-world-confronting-challenges-in-an-anti-christian-culture-aaron-m-renn/) - Christians in America are today under continuous attack, both by the government and by those who, for now, rule our culture. This is strange for many Christians, because broad anti-Christian animus among elites is a very recent phenomenon, although one inevitable as the Left has consolidated power. Aaron Renn, the originator of the seminal “three
- [<em>Feminism Against Progress</em> (Mary Harrington)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/04/11/feminism-against-progress-mary-harrington/) - Reality, like God, will not be mocked. This is the core message of Mary Harrington’s excellent new work, Feminism Against Progress. In challenging and compelling fashion, Harrington shows how so-called feminism destroys women, body and soul. Unhinged worship of unfettered autonomy, the core demand of an insane ideology falsely sold as progress, powers this destruction.
- [<em>The Gravediggers: The Last Winter of the Weimar Republic</em> (Rüdiger Barth and Hauke Friederichs)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/02/05/the-gravediggers-the-last-winter-of-the-weimar-republic-rudiger-barth-and-hauke-friederichs/) - In the demonology of the West, for nearly a hundred years the rise to power of Adolf Hitler has played a leading part. Nearly everyone knows, or thinks he knows, though he is wrong, that “the Germans elected Hitler,” with the apparent lesson that a people can go bad and democracy must never be allowed
- [Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline (Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/02/12/book-review-empty-planet-darrell-bricker-and-john-ibbitson/) - 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 true in most of the developed world. Empty Planet explains why this is undeniably so. Unfortunately, the explanation is shrouded in confusion and ideological distortion, so
- [<em>The Burning of the World: A Memoir of 1914</em> (Béla Zombory-Moldován)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/01/18/the-burning-of-the-world-a-memoir-of-1914-bela-zombory-moldovan/) - For more than 150 years, Americans have been mostly spared the cost of war. Yes, at times, some have felt the cost in the lives of their sons, though today our ruling classes know nothing even of that. But our wars are fought elsewhere, not in America. Thus, we can’t really conceive of a war
- [<em>On Social Justice</em> (Saint Basil the Great)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2024/01/11/on-social-justice-saint-basil-the-great/) - None of us likes to be told to change his life. No doubt this was true for cavemen, and it is even more true today, when unfettered individual autonomy is the idol of the age. But for each and every person, Christianity means you must change your life. No exceptions, and the change demanded is
- [<em>The Fortress: The Siege of Przemysl and the Making of Europe's Bloodlands</em> (Alexander Watson)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/07/31/the-fortress-the-siege-of-przemysl-and-the-making-of-europes-bloodlands-alexander-watson/) - I suspect not one in a thousand Americans could locate Galicia, a historically-important area spanning what is now southeastern Poland and western Ukraine, on a map. To be fair, Galicia is today not on most maps, since it’s not a country, and never has been. It is, or was, a land of many ethnic groups,
- [<em>Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970–2000</em> (Stephen Kotkin)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/12/13/armageddon-averted-the-soviet-collapse-1970-2000-stephen-kotkin/) - All of history is littered with dead empires. Since the so-called Enlightenment, history is also littered with dead regimes—governments built around an ideology, which in time collapsed, entirely killing the ideology which birthed them or forcing it to mutate into something new. The Eastern European Communist regimes collapsed in 1989. Their hegemon regime, Soviet Communism,
- [On the January 2021 Electoral Justice Protest](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/03/23/on-the-january-2021-electoral-justice-protest/) - What is truth about the January 6 Election Justice Protest?
- [<em>Tucker</em> (Chadwick Moore)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/12/29/tucker-chadwick-moore/) - In these latter days, two very different-seeming men embody the chthonic forces rising in America. Those forces are not ideological or political. Rather, they are manifestations of reality reasserting itself, against the anti-reality Regime which rules us. The first such man is Elon Musk, and we will discuss him later, in another piece, coming soon.
- [<em>When Money Dies: The Nightmare of Deficit Spending, Devaluation, and Hyperinflation in Weimar Germany</em> (Adam Fergusson)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/06/15/when-money-dies-the-nightmare-of-deficit-spending-devaluation-and-hyperinflation-in-weimar-germany-adam-fergusson/) - Inflation, like most society-wide monetary happenings, is always complex and often incompletely grasped. At least this is true of its causes; of its effects, most of all its social effects, there is now little doubt. We learned much about inflation during the twentieth century, when the advent of permanent fiat money made hyperinflation possible for
- [<em>The Moral Basis of a Backward Society</em> (Edward C. Banfield)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/06/27/the-moral-basis-of-a-backward-society-edward-c-banfield/) - Most cultures throughout history have been terrible. The natural state of so-called civilized man is somewhere between today’s Venezuela and today’s Somalia. Large-scale success, exceptions to the general rule, offering long-term stability combined with some degree of flourishing, has been limited to a handful of cultures. If you add actual accomplishment that advances the whole
- [<em>The Saxon Savior: The Germanic Transformation of the Gospel in the Ninth-Century Heliand</em> (G. Ronald Murphy)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/07/05/the-saxon-savior-the-germanic-transformation-of-the-gospel-in-the-ninth-century-heliand-g-ronald-murphy/) - Immediately before the Ascension, the last command of Christ to the Apostles was to “make disciples of all nations.” Ever since, at least until very recently, proselytizing has been a core goal of all Christians. This work has often not been easy. Christianity is always counter-cultural, opposed to the inherent dubious tendencies of mankind. Moreover,
- [<em>Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine</em> (Barry Strauss)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/08/08/ten-caesars-roman-emperors-from-augustus-to-constantine-barry-strauss/) - The Roman Empire, or at least the western Roman Empire, is a history of decline, as we all know. But not linear decline, and that matters. Ten Caesars, the latest offering from the always-excellent Barry Strauss, profiles the ten most consequential Roman emperors, narrating the ups and downs of the empire they ruled. Strauss’s book
- [<em>The Stakes: America at the Point of No Return</em> (Michael Anton)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/09/08/the-stakes-america-at-the-point-of-no-return-michael-anton/) - Michael Anton’s latest, half analysis and half prophecy, is simultaneously terrifying and clarifying. As I have said before, I align very closely with Anton in both core politics and attitude toward politics, so naturally I am enthusiastic about a new Anton book. But in this very fluid time, he writes as nobody else seems able,
- [<em>Why We Drive: Toward a Philosophy of the Open Road</em> (Matthew B. Crawford)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/09/14/why-we-drive-toward-a-philosophy-of-the-open-road-matthew-b-crawford/) - Philosopher Matthew Crawford’s third book is ostensibly a book about driving, but as with all Crawford’s works, that is merely the jumping-off point. Crawford expands our minds by exploring a range of related ideas, usually through concretizing abstractions, tying them to work done by real people in the real world. Why We Drive uses this
- [<em>The Outlaws</em> (Ernst von Salomon)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/09/17/the-outlaws-ernst-von-salomon/) - The Outlaws is advertised to modern readers as a memoir of the post-World War I struggles between the armed German Left and Right, between the Communists and the Freikorps. But it’s not. The Freikorps appear some; the Communists little, and often when they do, as quasi-friends of some on the Right. Rather, this is a
- [<em>The Soul of an Entrepreneur: Work and Life Beyond the Startup Myth </em> (David Sax)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/09/22/the-soul-of-an-entrepreneur-work-and-life-beyond-the-startup-myth-david-sax/) - 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 wisdom, or both, we can discuss another day. No surprise, in the 1980s song by The Nails, “88 Lines About 44 Women,” one of the couplets
- [<em>Long Range Shooting Handbook: The Complete Beginner's Guide to Precision Rifle Shooting</em> (Ryan M. Cleckner)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/09/25/long-range-shooting-handbook-the-complete-beginners-guide-to-precision-rifle-shooting-ryan-m-cleckner/) - 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. If war is certain, you had best prepare. It is not for nothing that one of the article categories on The Worthy House is “Wars To
- [<em>A Concise History of Finland</em> (David Kirby)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/10/01/a-concise-history-of-finland-david-kirby/) - 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 I doubt if most Americans could name one famous Finn. Even expatriate Finns aren’t prominent—Eero Saarinen designed some famous structures, such as the Gateway Arch, and
- [<em>Neuromancer</em> (William Gibson)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/10/09/neuromancer-william-gibson/) - 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 plenty. The Singularity was near. Aging and death would soon be conquered; the removal of all limitation would be, within a decade or two, the lot
- [On the Finnish Civil War](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/11/30/on-the-finnish-civil-war/) - 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 April, 1918, but killed around one percent of the population. It was started by the Left, the Reds, and ended by the rest of Finnish society,
- [<em>Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All</em> (Michael Shellenberger)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/11/12/apocalypse-never-why-environmental-alarmism-hurts-us-all-michael-shellenberger/) - 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 locution, given that many, if not most, people assume as I do, amazes me. Or it did, until I realized it isn’t actually propaganda. Rather, for
- [<em>The Captive Mind</em> (Czeslaw Milosz)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/12/05/the-captive-mind-czeslaw-milosz/) - We all like to imagine ourselves as heroes. We watch movies, and we instinctively put ourselves in the place of the hero, not in the place of the villain. We read the histories of twentieth-century tyrannies, and we assume we would be the resistance fighter, not the collaborator, informer, or toady to the new archons.
- [<em>Bullshit Jobs: A Theory</em> (David Graeber)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/12/10/bullshit-jobs-a-theory-david-graeber/) - I am trying to understand how human beings create value through their actions, and what that implies for humanity. Although this goal is hardly original, and has occupied much brighter thinkers than me for much of their lives, it is a necessary step in defining Foundationalism, because how we occupy our hands and minds, and
- [<em>A Time to Die: Monks on the Threshold of Eternal Life</em> (Nicolas Diat)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/12/12/a-time-to-die-monks-on-the-threshold-of-eternal-life-nicolas-diat/) - A Time to Die is a small gem of a book which works on two levels. On one level, it is a self-examination for the reader, offering him a glimpse of a very specific kind of life and thought, thereby helping him think about his own death. On another level, it is an examination of
- [<em>Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia</em> (Christina Thompson)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/12/17/sea-people-the-puzzle-of-polynesia-christina-thompson/) - Interest in Polynesia is not much in fashion nowadays, except for using the islands as an exemplar of the claimed, always imminent yet never arriving, effects of global warming. Still, ever since the Spanish accidentally ran into the Marquesas, on the east side of the giant triangle that forms Polynesia, anchored on the southwest by
- [<em>The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time</em> (Karl Polanyi)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/12/26/the-great-transformation-the-political-and-economic-origins-of-our-time-karl-polanyi/) - The Great Transformation, published in 1944, is an ambitious book. It attempts two huge tasks. First, to refute the free market ideology, sometimes called market fundamentalism, represented at that time by men such as Ludwig von Mises, and now by the entirety of globalized neoliberal capitalism. Second, to explain the history of the nineteenth century
- [<em>Light from the Christian East: An Introduction to the Orthodox Tradition</em> (James R. Payton Jr.)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/12/03/light-from-the-christian-east-an-introduction-to-the-orthodox-tradition-james-r-payton-jr/) - 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 above my pay grade. This book combines both. Written by James Payton, a Protestant academic, Light from the Christian East is a fairly accessible text meant
- [<em>The Feminine Mystique</em> (Betty Friedan)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/12/28/the-feminine-mystique-betty-friedan/) - 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 its existence and by what it brings forth, mocks the Left project, and so the Left has tried to destroy it for 250 years. But only
- [<em>Retrotopia</em> (John Michael Greer)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/01/01/retrotopia-john-michael-greer/) - 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 is hard—especially given the degradation of our present. Yes, the Age of Ideology is over, though its zombie corpse may stumble through the brambles of reality
- [<em>4th Generation Warfare Handbook</em> (William S. Lind)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/01/05/4th-generation-warfare-handbook-william-s-lind/) - 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 in which predate both those wars, and in fact date back to shortly after we lost the Vietnam War, says that our military should train to
- [<em>The Shadow of Vesuvius: A Life of Pliny</em> (Daisy Dunn)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/01/22/the-shadow-of-vesuvius-a-life-of-pliny-daisy-dunn/) - 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, and are often viewed as placeholders and strivers orbiting around one emperor or another, offering nothing to the rest of mankind. No doubt many such existed.
- [<em>Always with Honor: The Memoirs of General Wrangel</em> (Pyotr Wrangel)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/01/29/always-with-honor-the-memoirs-of-general-wrangel-pyotr-wrangel/) - 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 being seen in the Russian Civil War of 1918–20, where the Russian Reds defeated the Russian Whites. That struggle, though not as forgotten as the Finnish
- [On the Brawndo Tyranny](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/02/23/on-the-brawndo-tyranny/) - 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 men, rule. They rule as they please, in arbitrary, selective, self-benefitting fashion. Thus, what we live under is a tyranny, a system without rule of law.
- [<em>Salazar</em> (Tom Gallagher)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/02/15/salazar-tom-gallagher/) - 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 doomed, which necessarily means that an alternative will rise. Some replacements are flashy, full of promise mixed with danger, such as an American Augustus, Michael Anton’s
- [<em>Kissinger: 1923–1968: The Idealist</em> (Niall Ferguson)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/02/08/kissinger-1923-1968-the-idealist-niall-ferguson/) - 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. Was he important to American history? I hate to break it to the Baby Boomers, but no, he wasn’t. He was important to them in their
- [<em>Boomers: The Men and Women Who Promised Freedom and Delivered Disaster</em> (Helen Andrews)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/02/03/boomers-the-men-and-women-who-promised-freedom-and-delivered-disaster-helen-andrews/) - 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, and perhaps the worst generation in human history. The boomers, handed a wonderful, successful, stable society, fed it into a woodchipper, starting the very instant they
- [<em>Dark Emu</em> (Bruce Pascoe)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/03/03/dark-emu-bruce-pascoe/) - 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, with a big rock, what’s-its-name (Ayers Rock), sticking up against a bright blue sky. They think Australians eat kangaroos (they don’t; they’re vermin). Most of all,
- [<em>I See Satan Fall Like Lightning</em> (René Girard)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/03/30/i-see-satan-fall-like-lightning-rene-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 it is done in sorrow, viewing, as C. S. Lewis did before his conversion, Christianity as one of many lies, even if was “breathed through silver.”
- [<em>We</em> (Yevgeny Zamyatin)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/04/23/we-yevgeny-zamyatin/) - Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, written in 1921, is the ur-dystopia of all modern dystopias. True, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s 1984, both of which this book influenced, get more attention today. In fact, it is nearly a cliché, at least on the Right, that we are heading to some combination of the two,
- [<em>Ultrasociety: How 10,000 Years of War Made Humans the Greatest Cooperators on Earth</em> (Peter Turchin)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/04/20/ultrasociety-how-10000-years-of-war-made-humans-the-greatest-cooperators-on-earth-peter-turchin/) - Peter Turchin leads a recent academic movement to quantify and mathematize human history. That is, instead of analyzing history thematically, or engaging in broad analysis of happenings and trends, he aims to use processed data to prove hypothesized truths about our collective past. Turchin calls this new science cliodynamics (after the Muse of history), and
- [<em>The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower's Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming</em> (Jean-Martin Fortier)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/04/12/the-market-gardener-a-successful-growers-handbook-for-small-scale-organic-farming-jean-martin-fortier/) - My barn has a split personality. On one side, you may not be surprised to learn, dusty in the gloom, carefully organized and stacked, are defensive implements of war, slumbering until the day of judgment. On the other side are implements of agriculture, for I also aspire, in the now, to be a peaceful gentleman
- [<em>Glass House: The 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town</em> (Brian Alexander)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/05/25/glass-house-the-1-economy-and-the-shattering-of-the-all-american-town-brian-alexander/) - Private equity has made me rich beyond the dreams of avarice. Yet private equity can be, as this book shows, a tool of the devil, a corrosive and destructive force in American life. Still, I do not think the story is as simple as Brian Alexander, the author of Glass House, would have it. The
- [Announcement: Video Discussion between Henok Elias and Charles Haywood](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/05/23/announcement-video-discussion-between-henok-elias-and-charles-haywood/) - I am pleased to announce a video podcast between Henok Elias, a fascinating man, and myself. We touch on many interesting matters, from ancient (and modern) Ethiopia to the heresy of universalism. (Just ignore my overly orange lighting!) You can find the podcast, and how to subscribe to his many other interesting offerings on his
- [<em>Empires of the Sky: Zeppelins, Airplanes, and Two Men's Epic Duel to Rule the World </em> (Alexander Rose)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/05/10/empires-of-the-sky-zeppelins-airplanes-and-two-mens-epic-duel-to-rule-the-world-alexander-rose/) - Nothing is accomplished by our society today. That little which seems like accomplishment is merely the sating of useless consumerist desires and the serving up of mental frippery and degradation. Apple is valued at trillions of dollars; that fact says all you need to know. Even something that could be thought an accomplishment, such as
- [Announcement: Podcast Discussion between Michael Anton and Charles Haywood](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/05/03/announcement-podcast-discussion-between-michael-anton-and-charles-haywood/) - I am pleased to announce that The Claremont Institute, in the form of The American Mind, a publication of the Institute, has published a Special Edition of its regular podcast. This Special Edition features, and consists of nothing but, a discussion between Michael Anton, author of the crucial books The Stakes and After the Flight
- [<em>The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy</em> (Carl Schmitt)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/06/22/the-crisis-of-parliamentary-democracy-carl-schmitt/) - Ah, Carl Schmitt, Carl Schmitt! No man like him exists today. Political philosophy in our time is, and for many decades past has been, largely the domain of intellectual pygmies and outright morons; the age of gold has degenerated into the age of brass, or of plastic with yellow paint. Schmitt is dead, but his
- [Announcement: SECOND Podcast Discussion between Michael Anton and Charles Haywood](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/06/14/announcement-second-podcast-discussion-between-michael-anton-and-charles-haywood/) - The people, they demand Michael Anton and The Worthy House! I am again pleased to announce that The Claremont Institute, in the form of The American Mind, a publication of the Institute, has published another Special Edition of its regular podcast. This Special Edition features a second discussion between Michael Anton, author of the crucial
- [<em>What to Do When the Russians Come: A Survivor's Guide</em> (Robert Conquest)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/06/10/what-to-do-when-the-russians-come-a-survivors-guide-robert-conquest/) - One fine day in April, 1945, a cousin of mine was shot by the Russians. His name was Félix Straszer. His crime? None, of course. In February, Stalin had conquered and occupied Budapest, overwhelming determined and heroic Hungarian and German resistance. Two dead Russian soldiers had been found in the street, so the Russians rounded
- [<em>Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs</em> (Camilla Townsend)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/07/19/fifth-sun-a-new-history-of-the-aztecs-camilla-townsend/) - I have long admired Hernán Cortes, conqueror of the Aztecs. He may not have gotten to Heaven, though who can say, but he exemplified the spirit of the West, that which from Charlemagne to Frémont drove the world forward. Fifth Sun would have us stop and shed a tear for the Aztecs, considering them on
- [<em>The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind</em> (Gustave Le Bon)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/07/15/the-crowd-a-study-of-the-popular-mind-gustave-le-bon/) - For eighteen months, I have been infinitely puzzled that most responses to the Wuhan Plague have been irrational. Lack of rationality dominates the discourse and actions of the majority, from individuals to governments. This irrationality has innumerable manifestations, the most obvious being belief in plain fictions, recently the made-up threat of the new “Delta variant,”
- [<em>The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom</em> (James Burnham)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/08/14/the-machiavellians-defenders-of-freedom-james-burnham/) - The American Right, like all outsider political movements, has long been susceptible to Gnosticism. This usually manifests as the belief that a small group of wise initiates can see through rationales for political action and find hidden knowledge, of the real reasons men and societies act as they do. Sometimes those reasons are the machinations
- [<em>Freedom</em> (Sebastian Junger)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/07/05/freedom-sebastian-junger/) - This slim book, a companion of sorts to Sebastian Junger’s earlier book Tribe, is about philosophy derived from life. Junger has made a career out of undergoing risks and hardships, then distilling his experience to insight based in reality. It doesn’t really work here, though; Freedom is too unfocused. It’s quite interesting in spots, but
- [<em>Where Death and Glory Meet: Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Infantry</em> (Russell Duncan)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/06/29/where-death-and-glory-meet-colonel-robert-gould-shaw-and-the-54th-massachusetts-infantry-russell-duncan/) - I suspect that very few people under forty know who Robert Gould Shaw was. Those older may remember the 1989 film Glory, which told his story. That movie could never be made today (and will probably soon be disappeared, as has been 1964’s Zulu). After all, Shaw’s is an out-and-out “white savior” story, and now
- [<em>Political Romanticism</em> (Carl Schmitt)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/08/29/political-romanticism-carl-schmitt/) - To my excitement, Carl Schmitt is coming back into fashion, or at least into notice. Last week, for example, an excellent piece by the Swedish renegade leftist Malcolm Kyeyune received wide attention. It revolved around Schmitt’s concept, from The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy, that when a regime must prove its legitimacy empirically, it is doomed.
- [<em>The Bear: History of a Fallen King</em> (Michel Pastoureau)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/08/20/the-bear-history-of-a-fallen-king-michel-pastoureau/) - Symbology is a key element of any successful modern political movement. Animals are rarely modern political symbols; certainly modern mass ideologies, from Communism to National Socialism, have eschewed such symbology. Living creatures, whose exalted metaphorical political use was once widespread, are now usually mere lowbrow holdovers from the more distant past—elephants and donkeys, for example.
- [<em>The Victorious Counterrevolution: The Nationalist Effort in the Spanish Civil War</em> (Michael Seidman)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/08/01/the-victorious-counterrevolution-the-nationalist-effort-in-the-spanish-civil-war-michael-seidman/) - My goal is winning the future, and to win, we must utterly and permanently defeat the Left. In this effort, we can learn many lessons from Spain in the years from 1930 to 1940 (and in the years beyond, but that is a discussion for another day). These lessons are not just about war, or
- [<em>The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy</em> (Christopher Lasch)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/09/07/the-revolt-of-the-elites-and-the-betrayal-of-democracy-christopher-lasch/) - Christopher Lasch died before this, his last book, was published, twenty-six years ago. Lasch was a man out of time, a refugee leftist who nonetheless refused to embrace what passed for conservatism in the post-Communist false dawn, the main feature of which was idolatry of the invisible hand. No surprise, his message was rejected by
- [<em>Dictatorship: From the Origin of the Modern Concept of Sovereignty to Proletarian Class Struggle</em> (Carl Schmitt)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/10/02/dictatorship-from-the-origin-of-the-modern-concept-of-sovereignty-to-proletarian-class-struggle-carl-schmitt/) - Dictatorship, in the form of Caesarism, is in the American air. I have recently written on what, in practical terms, an American Caesar would do; I will soon tell you how likely our Caesar is, and why. As it happens, I am at the same time working my way through all the books of Carl
- [<em>The Guns of John Moses Browning: The Remarkable Story of the Inventor Whose Firearms Changed the World</em> (Nathan Gorenstein)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/10/19/the-guns-of-john-moses-browning-the-remarkable-story-of-the-inventor-whose-firearms-changed-the-world-nathan-gorenstein/) - Some men have minds that are simply not like those of others, but far better, on a different plane entirely. Such men are vanishingly rare, and appear to be even rarer, because their unique talents are often lost to mankind, when they are not recognized by or not applicable to the society in which they
- [<em>Industrial Society and Its Future</em> (Theodore John Kaczynski)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/10/22/industrial-society-and-its-future-theodore-john-kaczynski/) - What role should technology—the complex of machines and computers that undergirds our world—play in our future? This is a crucial question, and among thinking people today there exists a distinct split. Some, such as James Poulos in his soon-to-be-released Human, Forever, call for fully accepting that technology exists and is not going away, while refusing
- [Announcement: Podcast Discussion between Peter R. Quiñones and Charles](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/11/03/announcement-podcast-discussion-between-peter-r-quinones-and-charles/) - Now available across all platforms is my discussion with Peter R. Quiñones, host of the Free Man Beyond the Wall podcast. We talk about the fracture of America, putting one's boot on the neck of the Left, why hedge fund operators are inferior to glass factory workers, and much more. You can find the episode
- [<em>Stalin's War: A New History of World War II</em> (Sean McMeekin)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/11/04/stalins-war-a-new-history-of-world-war-ii-sean-mcmeekin/) - We are not a serious society. Our ruling class are men of no substance, lacking all knowledge and incapable of competent action on any front. The masses, while they sense a great deal is very wrong, are distracted by propaganda and ephemera. We feel we can afford to be unserious, because all of us lead
- [Announcement: Discussion between Tommy Salmons (Year Zero) and Charles](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/11/23/announcement-discussion-between-tommy-salmons-year-zero-and-charles/) - Now available is my discussion with Tommy Salmons on his Year Zero podcast! We have a freewheeling and wide-ranging discussion, containing much abuse of our current government, talk about societal structures, and more mention of Caesar. Combined with spiritual musings and other items of interest! You can find the episode here in audio, or on
- [<em>The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam</em> (Bat Ye'or)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/11/18/the-decline-of-eastern-christianity-under-islam-bat-yeor/) - For twenty years, our rulers have propagandized us with two contradictory claims. First, that the West is locked in an existential conflict with Islam, justifying any spending, any killing, and any erasure of our ancient liberties. And second, that no Muslim, as a Muslim, is any threat to anybody whatsoever. Resolving the contradiction is not
- [Against Counsels of Defeat](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/02/11/against-counsels-of-defeat/) - To defeat your enemy, you must know your enemy. Therefore, we must know what the Left is. I use a consistent core definition—the Left is those who follow the prime commandments of limitless emancipation and forced egalitarianism. You can further define the Left by example, beginning with the revolutionaries of 1789, and drawing a line
- [Announcement: Discussion between Prof. Edward Dutton (aka The Jolly Heretic) and Charles](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/11/09/announcement-discussion-between-prof-edward-dutton-aka-the-jolly-heretic-and-charles/) - Now available is my discussion with Professor Edward Dutton, aka The Jolly Heretic! Professor Dutton is an expert on evolutionary biology and related matters, which we mention in the context of civilizational collapse, but that is not our main focus here. Rather, we talk primarily about whether the future is the High Middle Ages with
- [<em>America Moved: Booth Tarkington's Memoirs of Time and Place, 1869–1928</em> (Jeremy Beer)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/12/08/america-moved-booth-tarkingtons-memoirs-of-time-and-place-1869-1928-jeremy-beer/) - A hundred years ago, Booth Tarkington was probably the most famous and successful author in America. But today, even in Indiana, his birthplace and the state with which he is forever associated, and where I live, Tarkington is forgotten. Purdue University has a dormitory, Tarkington Hall, at which my late father was a faculty advisor.
- [<em>Human, Forever</em> (James Poulos)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/11/30/human-forever-james-poulos/) - Digital communications technology is yet mostly a formless thing, still being born, upon which we moderns imprint our fears and our hopes. Some dreamers see it as an unalloyed good, which when grown will let us slip the chains of our humanity. Others, more grounded, see it as a genie best stuffed back into his
- [<em>A World after Liberalism: Philosophers of the Radical Right</em> (Matthew Rose)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/11/26/a-world-after-liberalism-philosophers-of-the-radical-right-matthew-rose/) - A review by me of this book has been published in the excellent journal IM-1776. The first paragraph, and a link to the entire review, and the journal itself, can be found below. A World After Liberalism: Philosophers of the Radical Right offers political advice to Christians. The problem is, it’s not good advice. The
- [Announcement: Discussion between <em>Navarra Confidencial</em> and Charles](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/12/12/announcement-discussion-between-navarra-confidencial-and-charles/) - Now available is my discussion with Navarra Confidencial, a Spanish news and opinion site! For better or worse, I speak no Spanish, so it is all in English. We talk politics, religion, and many other of the sorts of things one used to be discouraged from talking about. (You can also see the true horror
- [<em>Young Men and Fire</em> (Norman Maclean)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/01/11/young-men-and-fire-norman-maclean/) - Not long ago, as I wrote, I was listening to a playlist on Spotify (I listen to music when I write, but never when I read). It was Spotify’s weekly list of suggested songs based on listening history—for me, a mix of genres, heavy on thumping EDM (electronic dance music), my preferred writing music, but
- [<em>Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty</em> (Carl Schmitt)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/12/15/political-theology-four-chapters-on-the-concept-of-sovereignty-carl-schmitt/) - “Sovereign is he who decides the exception.” Among serious students of political philosophy, at least on the Right, these may be the most famous words of the twentieth century. That sentence opens this work, Political Theology, which consists of four linked essays, bound by the theme that most exercised Carl Schmitt in the early 1920s—the
- [<em>God Is a Man of War: The Problem of Violence in the Old Testament </em> (Stephen De Young)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/01/26/god-is-a-man-of-war-the-problem-of-violence-in-the-old-testament-stephen-de-young/) - Many, if not most, modern Christians are crypto-Marcionites. They resonate with the heresy that God, as revealed in the Old Testament, is different from God as revealed by Jesus Christ. Marcion (the second-century-A.D. originator of the heresy, an early form of Gnosticism) had to throw out the entire Old Testament and most of the New
- [<em>On the Marble Cliffs</em> (Ernst Jünger)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/02/28/on-the-marble-cliffs-ernst-junger/) - As the twenty-first century grinds on, with history returning in spades, Ernst Jünger, German warrior and philosopher, grows more relevant every day. This book, On the Marble Cliffs, I view as his third book in an unrecognized trilogy advising us how we should conduct ourselves under different types of tyranny. It fits with two other
- [<em>Fitzpatrick's War</em> (Theodore Judson)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/04/18/emfitzpatricks-war-em-theodore-judson/) - Fitzpatrick’s War, a prophetic 2004 work of fiction, which I read on a whim, has, somewhat to my surprise, stuck deeply in my mind. Not only does the book echo events that have happened since its publication, it also bids fair to predict the broad outlines of the immediate future. What is more, Fitzpatrick’s War
- [<em>Roman Catholicism and Political Form</em> (Carl Schmitt)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/05/18/roman-catholicism-and-political-form-carl-schmitt/) - If, as Carl Schmitt asserted in Political Theology, “all significant concepts of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts,” what does that imply for political forms? This book, written immediately after Political Theology, addresses that question. Schmitt analyzes a political form that originated as theological but has adopted many different secular roles—the
- [<em>A Gallop in Ethiopia: Wax, Gold & the Abyssinian Pony</em> (Yves-Marie Stranger)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/05/08/a-gallop-in-ethiopia-wax-gold-the-abyssinian-pony-yves-marie-stranger/) - It has been a long time, a millennium and a half, since Ethiopia was a relevant player on the world stage. But I sometimes wonder if, as the present age grinds to its stupid end, the time of Ethiopia, with its ancient, self-confident Christian civilization, has come round again. Out of the corner of my
- [<em>The Managerial Revolution: What is Happening in the World</em> (James Burnham)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/05/01/the-managerial-revolution-what-is-happening-in-the-world-james-burnham/) - Who rules? That’s what we all want to know. The Managerial Revolution, James Burnham’s still-influential 1941 book (the subject, for example, of recent pieces by Aaron Renn and Julius Krein), gave that eternal question a fresh answer. Broadly speaking his was, we can see eighty years later, indisputably the correct analysis. Burnham agreed that capitalism,
- [<em>Underwriters of the United States: How Insurance Shaped the American Founding</em> (Hannah Farber)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/05/22/underwriters-of-the-united-states-how-insurance-shaped-the-american-founding-hannah-farber/) - Property insurance is everywhere, but it is rarely prominent in the public mind. Its internal workings are obscure, full of technical language, esoteric customs, and mind-numbing legalese.
- [<em>First Do No Harm</em> (Paracelsus)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/06/14/first-do-no-harm-paracelsus/) - America is already a low-trust society, and with good reason societal trust is rocketing further downward. Yet Americans still, by and large, trust medical institutions — perhaps more than any other set of entities.
- [<em>The Children of Men</em> (P. D. James)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/07/11/the-children-of-men-p-d-james/) - A constant complaint of today’s Right is that our civilization has been ruined politically and spiritually by decades of Left dominance. But we pay less mind to the physical destruction of our bodies taking place at the same time. The damage is inarguable: witness the gross obesity, the precipitous drops in male testosterone and sperm
- [<em>Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic</em> (Ben Westhoff)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/07/02/fentanyl-inc-how-rogue-chemists-are-creating-the-deadliest-wave-of-the-opioid-epidemic-ben-westhoff/) - Fentanyl, Inc. updates Sam Quinones’s seminal 2015 Dreamland, about the American opioid epidemic, focusing on the synthetic opioid fentanyl, the use of which has exploded in the past five years. No doubt, increasing drug use is a very important topic for the future of America. Unfortunately, Ben Westhoff’s book covers it in a disorganized and
- [<em>Der Fragebogen (The Questionnaire)</em> (Ernst Von Salomon)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/02/06/der-fragebogen-the-questionnaire-ernst-von-salomon/) - Ernst von Salomon’s Der Fragebogen is unique, a product of the refiner’s fire, a work forged in the cataclysm of mid-twentieth-century Europe. But this once-famous, now-obscure book, published only one time in English, and that seventy years ago, still holds within its pages knowledge about both the past and the future. As to the past,
- [<em>The Religion of the Apostles: Orthodox Christianity in the First Century</em> (Stephen De Young)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/06/17/the-religion-of-the-apostles-orthodox-christianity-in-the-first-century-stephen-de-young/) - Myths about Christianity abound, and some myths even pass as common knowledge. One myth is that Christians, after Jesus Christ started a new religion, worshipped in a very simple manner, revolving around undeveloped doctrines of love and sharing. Only later, we are often told (by both devout Protestants and by unbelievers, advancing different agendas) was
- [On Manual Work for Men](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/07/14/on-manual-work-for-men/) - Those who rule us seek to stamp out masculinity. Over the pastseveral decades their attacks have been wildly successful, as a glance around you will show. True, in some families, boys are still raised to be men. But when they leave home, the never-ending attacks of the feminizers pick off many, because in every area
- [<em>Why Chimpanzees Can't Learn Language and Only Humans Can</em> (Herbert S. Terrace)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/07/19/why-chimpanzees-cant-learn-language-and-only-humans-can-herbert-s-terrace/) - When I was growing up in the 1980s, a staple belief of socially-correct thinking was that many non-human animals, not only apes but also dolphins, whales, and elephants, had, if we could only understand, minds functionally indistinguishable from ours. Children were told constantly about Koko the gorilla, who could supposedly speak, albeit in sign language.
- [<em>The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann</em> (Ananyo Bhattacharya)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/07/22/the-man-from-the-future-the-visionary-life-of-john-von-neumann-ananyo-bhattacharya/) - This is a disappointing book. Not awful, but not good. The Man from the Future manages to take the life of the polymath John von Neumann and to make it dull, never giving us any real sense of the man, although we do get some sense of his accomplishments. Beyond that, it’s filled with bad
- [<em>Dark Age America: Climate Change, Cultural Collapse, and the Hard Future Ahead</em> (John Michael Greer)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/07/27/dark-age-america-climate-change-cultural-collapse-and-the-hard-future-ahead-john-michael-greer/) - I am both pessimist and optimist about our future. I expect our civilization, that of the West, to end entirely, and soon. Yet at the same time, I believe we can have an intensely bright future thereafter—not a return, certainly, but something wholly new, informed by the wisdom and knowledge of the past. Moreover, I
- [My Advice to the Young](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/08/13/my-advice-to-the-young/) - Quite often, I am asked for my opinion. You might think that the topic would be politics, or history, or perhaps business, but usually, it is not. Rather, I am asked how a young man should approach his life, in these days of confusion, of uncertain future, of corrosive liquid modernity. In response, I piecemeal
- [<em>Breakfast with the Dirt Cult</em> (Samuel Finlay)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/09/21/breakfast-with-the-dirt-cult-samuel-finlay/) - In 1952, Ralph Ellison published, to great acclaim, his first and only novel, Invisible Man. The book narrated how Ellison’s protagonist, a black man, suffered social oppression. But that was long ago, and one thing black people definitely don’t suffer anymore is oppression. Rather, many dish it out, aided by their allies of other races,
- [What to Do When Caesar Comes](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/08/26/reprise-what-to-do-when-caesar-comes/) - Is a Caesar, an authoritarian reconstructor of our institutions, soon to step onto the American stage? A betting man would say yes.
- [<em>The Concept of the Political</em> (Carl Schmitt)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/10/14/the-concept-of-the-political-carl-schmitt/) - This, Carl Schmitt’s best-known work, first published in 1932, is a crucial book for our present moment. The clear-eyed Schmitt, who stands far above any modern political philosopher, writes here of timeless principles that lie behind political action, and he slices through the ignorance, doublespeak, and confusion that surround any discussion today of the “why”
- [Anton, Cooper, Haywood, Peterson, and Reaboi Walk into a Bar . . .](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/10/22/anton-cooper-haywood-peterson-and-reaboi-walk-into-a-bar/) - You may be tired of discussion of Caesarism. But if you are not, this one is for you! Recently, at a super-secret location, I was honored to participate in a group conversation with: Michael Anton (who needs no introduction); Darryl Cooper (MartyrMade on Twitter and in his podcast); Matthew Peterson (New Founding); and David Reaboi
- [<em>The Eggs Benedict Option</em> (Raw Egg Nationalist)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/11/22/the-eggs-benedict-option-raw-egg-nationalist/) - Often those who complain about the world in which we live offer neither a clear vision of how things might be different, nor a path to achieve that vision. Refreshingly, in The Eggs Benedict Option the pseudonymous writer Raw Egg Nationalist offers both vision and path, centered around food, in all its aspects, as the
- [<em>The Age of Paradise: Christendom from Pentecost to the First Millennium</em> (John Strickland)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/12/07/the-age-of-paradise-christendom-from-pentecost-to-the-first-millennium-john-strickland/) - Christian nationalism is in the air. While that obscure term has been weaponized recently to whip up hate against Christians, it is a real thing, with many historical manifestations. For both Christianity and nationalism are excellent and awesome, and like the chocolate and peanut butter in Reese’s, they are even better together than alone. Still,
- [<em>On Wealth and Poverty</em> (Saint John Chrysostom)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/12/28/on-wealth-and-poverty-saint-john-chrysostom/) - As far back as I can remember, I wanted to be rich. I was not wealthy growing up, nor was anybody I knew. Today, however, as I state perhaps too often, I am rich. I bathe twice daily in French champagne and always cover my burgers in gold leaf. The problem is, as most everybody
- [<em>For the Freedom of Zion: The Great Revolt of Jews against Romans, A.D. 66–74</em> (Guy MacLean Rogers)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/01/09/for-the-freedom-of-zion-the-great-revolt-of-jews-against-romans-a-d-66-74-guy-maclean-rogers/) - Let’s talk about the Jews. No, not about how the Jews supposedly run the world (although there is some truth buried in that claim, to which we will return). I mean about the actual Jews, the past and present people who have been, arguably, more central to the story of mankind than any other people.
- [My Appearance on “Tucker Carlson Today”: Full Version](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/01/26/my-appearance-on-tucker-carlson-today-full-version/) - In September, I sat down for a talk with Tucker Carlson, on Tucker Carlson Today. This is the complete video. We talk about a great deal, from Foundationalism to farming, and whether I am related to the Communist Big Bill Haywood. You can find the audio version here, or on standard podcast platforms. Audio and
- [<em>The Making of Oliver Cromwell</em> (Ronald Hutton)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/01/16/the-making-of-oliver-cromwell-ronald-hutton/) - If you know anything about Oliver Cromwell—and few do nowadays— you probably have an opinion about the man. Some vilify him; “A curse upon you, Oliver Cromwell, you who raped our Motherland,” the Irish rock band The Pogues sang. Others praise him as an enemy of arbitrary rule and a proto-republican. Ronald Hutton’s new biography
- [On the Fragility of the Current Regime](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/10/31/on-the-fragility-of-the-current-regime/) - You are the good guy in a Western movie showdown. You stand in the dusty street, facing your opponent, a black-clad gunslinger with a fearsome reputation. You have seen signs he’s lost his touch—he drinks too much, and sometimes his hands shake and his eyes turn cloudy. But you also know that he’s killed dozens
- [February Appearances!](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/02/27/february-appearances/) - I was honored to appear in four different venues in February. These were: 1) A second appearance on Alex Kaschuta's Subversive podcast. 2) An appearance on Brian Chau's From the New World podcast (nearly three hours!) 3) An appearance on Stephen W. Carson's Radical Liberation podcast. 4) An appearance on Todd Lewis's Praise of Folly
- [On Entrepreneurial Success](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/02/20/on-entrepreneurial-success/) - I am often asked how I achieved entrepreneurial success. That is, how I became, in the words of Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “Richard Cory,” “rich—yes, richer than a king.” (We can gloss over the ultimate fate of Cory in that poem, which will not be mine, even if sometimes I expect to also die with a
- [<em>Crossing the Rubicon: Caesar's Decision and the Fate of Rome</em> (Lucca Fezzi)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/03/02/crossing-the-rubicon-caesars-decision-and-the-fate-of-rome-lucca-fezzi/) - In our failing American Republic, Julius Caesar is, for many, a condensed symbol. He stands in for everything that might bring a final, formal end to institutions already dead, and he hints at what and who may open the door to something new. This broad symbolism derived from Caesar’s meteoric career, however, means that all
- [<em>The Holy Fire: The Story of the Fathers of the Eastern Church</em> (Robert Payne)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/03/23/the-holy-fire-the-story-of-the-fathers-of-the-eastern-church-robert-payne/) - It’s Lent, so let’s spend a little time away from politics. The Holy Fire, first published in 1957, when Eastern Orthodoxy had zero presence in the religious consciousness of most of America, is a beautifully-written popular history of ten towering eastern Fathers of the Church. Popular history in 1957 is not comparable to popular history
- [<em>Rhodesian S.A.S. Combat Manual</em>](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/03/29/rhodesian-s-a-s-combat-manual/) - It is common on the Right today to have conversations which five or ten years ago would have seemed insane. Notable among such discussions are those relating to violence in conditions of societal fluidity. Of late, for me, talk tends to coalesce around possible future instantiations of a social device of ancient lineage, to which
- [<em>The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium</em> (Martin Gurri)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/04/28/the-revolt-of-the-public-and-the-crisis-of-authority-in-the-new-millennium-martin-gurri/) - As our ruling class drives the West into the ditch, from which a reborn society will probably emerge, but they and their rule will certainly not, it is natural for us to focus on elite theory—that is, who rules? This is an ancient question, although how the question is analyzed has changed with the rise
- [<em>The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Third Annual Collection</em> (Gardner Dozois ed.)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/08/23/book-review-the-years-best-science-fiction-thirty-third-annual-collection-gardner-dozois-ed/) - I have read all of the Dozois annual collections. And this one, the thirty-third, is the best. I applaud Dozois’ bold ability to collect stories that, whatever their merits as literature or entertainment, truly show a path forward. A path forward from historical oppression of womyn; of those of color; of gender non-binaries; and of
- [Recent Appearances (May 2023)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/05/20/recent-appearances/) - I was honored to appear in six different venues recently. These were: 1) The American Warrior Society podcast. 2) John Rush's podcast. 3) A second appearance on Todd Lewis's Praise of Folly podcast. 4) The inaugural episode of the New Founding podcast. 5) A second appearance on the Year Zero podcast. 6) Andrew Isker's Contra
- [<em>Legality and Legitimacy</em> (Carl Schmitt)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/06/01/legality-and-legitimacy-carl-schmitt/) - It is frequently said, and it is entirely true, that the Regime which rules us is illegitimate. But what does that precisely mean? No surprise, Carl Schmitt lights the way to an answer, in one of his lesser-known works, Legality and Legitimacy. This book should be more talked about—it was published in Berlin in 1932,
- [<em>Regime Change: Toward a Postliberal Future</em> (Patrick Deneen)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/06/22/regime-change-toward-a-postliberal-future-patrick-deneen/) - Vladimir Lenin taught that “he who says A must say B.” He was correct, but Patrick Deneen has not listened. Deneen says A, that our Regime, our ruling class, is destructive and evil. But he then refuses to say B, that the Regime is therefore wholly odious and illegitimate, and before any new system is
- [<em>The Glass Bees</em> (Ernst Jünger)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/07/10/the-glass-bees-ernst-junger/) - The Glass Bees, a novel by the crucial Ernst Jünger, is not directly a political work. The focus here is the relation of man to technology, especially the resulting alienation of man, not from the fruits of his labor, but from his grounding in the real. At first, this seems very different from the focus
- [<em>America’s Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything</em> (Christopher Rufo)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/07/20/americas-cultural-revolution-how-the-radical-left-conquered-everything-christopher-rufo/) - Christopher Rufo has earned a stellar reputation as both analyst of, and strategist against, the poison of “critical theory.” In America’s Cultural Revolution, with verve, precision, and clarity, he explains what critical theory is, where it came from, and how, over the past fifty years, it was used by the Left to conquer America. His
- [<em>The Sunlilies: Eastern Orthodoxy As a Radical Counterculture</em> (Graham Pardun)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/08/16/the-sunlilies-eastern-orthodoxy-as-a-radical-counterculture-graham-pardun/) - It’s time for a palate cleanser, a turn away from politics and from endless talk of the evil man does to man. Today our focus is a lovely and inspiring book of Eastern Orthodox meditations on prayer, revolving largely around the natural world as a manifestation of God’s will and love. I have been saying
- [On Manual Work for Men](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/08/30/on-manual-work-for-men-2/) - Those who rule us seek to stamp out masculinity. Over the pastseveral decades their attacks have been wildly successful, as a glance around you will show. True, in some families, boys are still raised to be men. But when they leave home, the never-ending attacks of the feminizers pick off many, because in every area
- [Recent Appearances (August 2023)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/08/11/recent-appearances-august-2020/) - I was honored to appear in six different venues recently. These were: 1) With Auron MacIntyre, for the second time, where we discussed the new kulaks. 2) With Benjamin Boyce, of entrepreneurship, feudalism, and more. 3) On Chronicles Magazine's new podcast. 4) A second appearance on the American Warrior Society podcast. 5) With Michael Farris,
- [Recent Appearances (September 2023)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/09/20/recent-appearances-september-2023/) - I was honored to appear in five different venues in the past month. Topics were particularly spicy, the result of media hit pieces on me which attracted attention from different quarters, as well as the rising discussion around "no enemies to the Right." Shows where I appeared were: 1) CROSSPOLITIC, where we talked about the
- [On Marriage](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/09/26/on-marriage/) - Men on the Right spend a great deal of time improving ourselves. We improve our diet through changing the foods we eat; we improve our strength through weight training; we improve our minds through reading forbidden books. Too often, though, we neglect the most important dimension of our society—ensuring a healthy, productive relationship between men
- [On The Principle "No Enemies on the Right"](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/10/02/on-the-principle-no-enemies-on-the-right/) - Last December, one evening, I made a throwaway comment on Twitter. It was a response to Rod Dreher, who was yet again viciously publicly trying to destroy the life of someone on the Right (that day, a young father and schoolteacher whose private statements had offended Dreher). My comment was “Who cares? No enemies to
- [<em>Domestic Extremist: A Practical Guide to Winning the Culture War</em> (Peachy Keenan)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/09/13/domestic-extremist-a-practical-guide-to-winning-the-culture-war-peachy-keenan/) - My aunt, one of my father’s two sisters, died in 2020, at the age of eighty-five. She never married, because when she was young, she convinced herself that what mattered was having a career—in her case, as a virologist. She attended all the best schools: Miss Porter’s; Bryn Mawr; and Harvard Medical School, graduating in
- [<em>Icarus Fallen: The Search for Meaning in an Uncertain World</em> (Chantal Delsol)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/11/05/icarus-fallen-the-search-for-meaning-in-an-uncertain-world-chantal-delsol/) - It is easy today to see that Western civilization has hit the skids. Twenty years ago, when the French political philosopher Chantal Delsol published Icarus Fallen (the English translation of a work first published in French in 1996), it was not so clear. The signs were all there, and the truth that the Enlightenment scheme
- [<em>Dr. Space: The Life of Wernher von Braun</em> (Bob Ward)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/11/30/dr-space-the-life-of-wernher-von-braun-bob-ward/) - In 1969, when men first landed on the Moon, Wernher von Braun was seen as the herald of, and driving force behind, a brilliant expansionist future for mankind. He was world-famous, in a way that no man can be today, given the fragmented attention of the modern internet-driven globe. But from the perspective of 2023,
- [<em>Christian Orthodox Political Philosophy: A Theological Approach</em> (Pavlos M. Kyprianou)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/12/06/christian-orthodox-political-philosophy-a-theological-approach-pavlos-m-kyprianou/) - At present institutional Christianity has no power in America. Yes, “separation of church and state” is both ahistorical and stupid, but even a separation recognizes the dual nature of any society, typically governed in concert by both the secular and the spiritual. But nature abhors a vacuum, so as the power of Christianity has faded,
- [<em>Leviathan Wakes</em> (James S. A. Corey)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/11/03/book-review-leviathan-wakesjames-s-a-corey/) - Leviathan Wakes is extremely well written, with a tight plot and carefully chosen prose. This alone separates it from the vast majority of today’s science fiction. Nor is it tendentious message fiction, further separating it from most modern science fiction, which is all about the navel-gazing identity of the characters, mostly as thinly veiled metaphor
- [Recent Appearances (November 2023)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/11/16/recent-appearances-november-2023/) - I was honored to appear recently in six different venues. Both topical topics and matters other than politics were discussed. Programs where I appeared were: 1) With Hotep Jesus, talking of the Middle East, digital currency, and more. 2) A second appearance on the same podcast where I first appeared on video, the Philosophy of
- [<em>The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century</em> (Walter Scheidel)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/11/11/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 town. But most of this talk is political—of economic goods today, and whether and how our society should change who owns them. Little mainstream attention has been paid to the history of inequality, and here Walter Scheidel offers an exhaustive look
- [On My Lawsuit Against Amazon (Updated)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/10/06/on-my-lawsuit-against-amazon/) - For people who like this sort of thing, I am pleased to present my lawsuit filed, in federal court in Seattle, a few weeks ago against Amazon (mentioned on my recent appearance on Tucker Carlson's show). As longtime readers know, at one point I was one of the highest-ranking reviewers on Amazon, but they deplatformed
- [<em>The Recovery of Family Life: Exposing the Limits of Modern Ideologies</em> (Scott Yenor)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/03/10/the-recovery-of-family-life-exposing-the-limits-of-modern-ideologies-scott-yenor/) - 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, the problems of modernity and the challenges facing us. Some of those books do offer concrete solutions, but their audience is usually either the educated masses,
- [<em>The Third Reich at War</em> (Richard Evans)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/12/06/book-review-the-third-reich-at-war-richard-evans/) - Reading this third volume of Richard Evans’s massive study of the Third Reich, scenes from the television show The Man in the High Castle kept flashing before my eyes. That show (based on a Philip K. Dick book) posits a National Socialist victory in World War II, and depicts how the postwar Greater German Reich
- [<em>To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism</em> (Ross Douthat)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/03/30/book-review-change-church-pope-francis-future-catholicism-ross-douthat/) - Ross Douthat has a job that is, I would guess, either enviable or unpleasant, depending on the day—that of being the only regular conservative contributor to the New York Times. A frequent focus of Douthat’s is that most counter-cultural of doctrines, orthodox Roman Catholicism. If you want to suffer, you need only visit the comments section
- [<em>Red Platoon: A True Story of American Valor</em> (Clinton Romesha)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/12/07/book-review-red-platoon-a-true-story-of-american-valor-clinton-romesha/) - Americans have always liked fighting stories: autobiographical and third person, fictional and non-fictional. From dime novels about outlaws and Indians to, more recently, war movies, Americans have vicariously enjoyed American combat, and American successes in combat. There are even meta fighting stories: an organizing frame of Clint Eastwood’s movie Unforgiven is a biographer trailing Eastwood’s
- [<em>The Orthodox Church: An Introduction to Eastern Christianity</em> (Timothy Ware)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/08/18/book-review-orthodox-church-introduction-eastern-christianity-timothy-ware/) - As I and my family continue our inevitable pivot toward Orthodoxy, I have been reading more works on, you guessed it, Orthodoxy. This book, by the English theologian Timothy Ware, who as a bishop uses the baptismal name Kallistos, is a classic introduction to Orthodoxy. It was first published in 1963 but has more recently
- [<em>The Garments of Court and Palace: Machiavelli and the World That He Made </em> (Philip Bobbitt)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/08/23/book-review-garments-court-palace-machiavelli-world-made-philip-bobbitt/) - Philip Bobbitt is best known for his earlier work The Shield of Achilles, a thousand-page work tracing the development of the modern state. This book, The Garments of Court and Palace, focuses more narrowly on the inception of the modern state, through the prism of Niccolò Machiavelli’s writings. At the same time it claims to
- [<em>How Democracy Ends</em>  (David Runciman)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/08/29/book-review-democracy-ends-david-runciman/) - In the past year, several high-profile books have been published that purport to analyze the future of democracy. All are reactions, and not positive reactions, to the election of Donald Trump. All are written by people of the Left, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are either wrong or bad, although there is certainly
- [<em>Napoleon: A Life </em> (Andrew Roberts)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/09/07/book-review-napoleon-life-andrew-roberts/) - For some time now, I have been claiming that what we are likely to get, and probably need, whether we like it or not, is a Man of Destiny. The original man called that was, of course, Napoleon Bonaparte. Neither my claim nor Napoleon is popular nowadays. We have gotten used to hearing that individual
- [<em>Discourses on Livy</em> (Niccolò Machiavelli)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/12/10/book-review-discourses-on-livyniccolo-machiavelli/) - Niccolò Machiavelli is known today for two things: the adjective “Machiavellian,” and the book from which that adjective is derived, The Prince, which provides advice for monarchs who accede to power. But Machiavelli wrote more than one book, and his second-most-famous book is this one, Discourses on Livy. In it, he provides advice for the
- [Discussion with Charles on Third Way Radio](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/01/23/discussion-with-charles-on-third-way-radio/) - Now available is my discussion, in essence an interview of me, on Third Way Radio, a presentation of New Frontier! This features Haywood in high gear and taking no prisoners, castigating the Baby Boomers, elucidating Foundationalism, and generally pushing wholesale change. We discuss the role of government in societal virtue, and the rejection of what
- [<em>Mormon Country</em> (Wallace Stegner)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/12/19/book-review-mormon-countrywallace-stegner/) - Wallace Stegner, writer about the American West, is famous mostly for his novel Angle of Repose. This book is not famous, but it is worth reading. Mormon Country is a travelogue centered on the areas settled by the Mormons—basically Utah, of course, but also parts of Colorado, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, and New Mexico. It is
- [<em>Why Liberalism Failed</em> (Patrick J. Deneen)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/12/19/book-review-why-liberalism-failed-patrick-j-deneen/) - Poor Francis Fukuyama. He has been a punching bag ever since he unwisely declared the End of History, more than twenty-five years ago. Fukuyama, of course, meant that the globe had, at the end of ideologies, reached an equilibrium, an even, calm sea of liberal democracy, and all that was left was cleanup. Patrick Deneen
- [“What Victory Looks Like”—Discussion with Auron MacIntyre](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/01/02/what-victory-looks-like-discussion-with-auron-macintyre/) - Now available is my discussion with Auron MacIntyre about victory over the Left. We talk about permanent success in building a Left-free society, about "no enemies to the right," about technology, and much more. You can find the episode here in video on YouTube, or here in audio on Apple Podcasts, or on all the
- [I Discuss Topical Topics on <em>The Pete Quinones Show</em>](https://theworthyhouse.com/2023/02/02/i-discuss-topical-topics-on-the-pete-quinones-show/) - Now available is my recent discussion on The Pete Quinones Show! This was pretty spicy. We discuss the Russo-Ukraine War (including that it's time to give Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia back to Hungary), race in America, Abraham Lincoln, and my thoughts on (No) Enemies to the Right. You can find the episode here in audio, or on
- [<em>Reason and Revelation in the Middle Ages</em> (Etienne Gilson)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/09/08/book-review-reason-revelation-middle-ages-etienne-gilson/) - Etienne Gilson is one of those men who shot across the sky of the West in the first half of the twentieth century, and were mostly forgotten by the end of the century, thrown overboard in the general wreck of Christendom. He combined in his thought any number of now-unfashionable currents: a love for Roman
- [<em>Archeofuturism: European Visions of the Post-Catastrophic Age</em> (Guillaume Faye)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/09/10/book-review-archeofuturism-european-visions-post-catastrophic-age-guillaume-faye/) - I sometimes think of my project to pass Reaction through the refiner’s fire as beginning with the raw material of a simple stout tree, which has grown straight but has many branches. My task is to examine and prune those branches, and to plane down the tree to its core, creating a smooth and solid
- [“Caesar & Beyond”—My Appearance with Auron MacIntyre](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/09/26/caesar-beyond-my-appearance-with-auron-macintyre/) - Now available is my discussion with Auron MacIntyre. We talk about Caesar, of course, but also much more, including the (likely limited) role of people such as ourselves in the new society. You can find the episode here on YouTube. You can follow Auron on his very popular YouTube channel, at his Substack, or on
- [<em>On Revolution</em> (Hannah Arendt)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/09/13/book-review-revolution-hannah-arendt/) - This is a book that rewards patience. The problem is, I am not a patient man, nor do I think that the reward here would be commensurate with the effort. Thus, I spent enough time, which was quite a bit, to grasp maybe half of this book. I think the rest escaped me. That’s partially
- [<em>The Russian Revolution: A New History</em> (Sean McMeekin)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/09/23/book-review-russian-revolution-new-history-sean-mcmeekin/) - I am currently very focused on the ascent to power of Communism in Russia, not because it had anything to recommend it, but for the lessons it can teach us. Some of those lessons are ones the author of this book, Sean McMeekin, wants to impart—the dangers of left-wing ideology, primarily. Those are valuable lessons,
- [<em>The Saboteur: The Aristocrat Who Became France's Most Daring Anti-Nazi Commando</em> (Paul Kix)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/09/27/book-review-saboteur-aristocrat-became-frances-daring-anti-nazi-commando-paul-kix/) - This is the story of a man—Robert de La Rouchefoucauld, scion of one of the oldest noble families in France, who lived from 1923 to 2012. He led a life in full; the focus of this book is his three years fighting against the Germans in France, as a résistant. It is a tale of
- [More on Regime Fragility—Talking with Astral](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/12/18/more-on-regime-fragility-talking-with-astral/) - I sat down for a talk with Astral, of Astral Flight Simulation. His views on Regime fragility differ somewhat from mine, and I specifically used his views as a foil in my original piece. Thus, this was a very productive conversation, especially because I have been focused on Regime fragility lately (when I am not
- [On “No Enemies to the Right”](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/12/13/on-no-enemies-to-the-right/) - Stephen Covey wrote a once-famous book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Six of the habits are forgettable, and should be forgotten. But the seventh—ah, that is everything! “Begin with the end in mind.”What is our end? That is easy—winning. What is the winning condition? It is the total, permanent defeat of the Left,
- [Technology and More—My Conversation with J. Burden](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/12/09/technology-and-more-my-conversation-with-j-burden/)
- [<em>Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass</em> (Theodore Dalrymple)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/09/29/life-bottom-worldview-makes-underclass-theodore-dalrymple/) - When I am dictator, which hopefully will be any day now, I am going to bring back what was once a crucial distinction. Namely, the sharp separation between the deserving and the undeserving poor. Theodore Dalrymple’s book shows both why that distinction is necessary, indeed absolutely essential, and why it has fallen from favor among
- [<em>How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us. . . .</em> (Michael Pollan)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/10/12/how-to-change-your-mind-what-the-new-science-of-psychedelics-teaches-us-michael-pollan-dup-dup/) - 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 taken any psychedelic drug of any type, I have never taken any illegal drug at all. Similarly, I have never had any type of mystical experience
- [<em>The Forest Passage</em> (Ernst Jünger)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/10/13/the-forest-passage-ernst-junger/) - Ernst Jünger was one of the more fascinating men of the twentieth century. Remembered in the English-speaking world primarily for his World War I memoir, The Storm of Steel, he was famous in Europe for a range of right-leaning thought spanning nearly eighty years (he lived from 1896 to 1998). His output was prodigious, more
- [<em>Trotsky: A Biography</em> (Robert Service)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/12/29/book-review-trotsky-a-biography-robert-service/) - I continue to be fascinated by the Bolshevik Revolution, because in its success there are many lessons. Unbiased history and biography of the Bolsheviks is a relatively recent phenomenon; prior to 1991, a combination of lack of primary materials and philo-Communism among Western historians meant very few objective books were published. Since 1991, though, the
- [<em>Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else</em> (Chrystia Freeland)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/10/30/book-review-plutocrats-the-rise-of-the-new-global-super-rich-and-the-fall-of-everyone-else-chrystia-freeland/) - From the cover, I expected this book to be a lightweight documentary version of Crazy Rich Asians, offering painfully amusing stories about the foibles of the super-rich, accompanied by cautions about the negative effects of such behavior upon the rest of America. Plus, the picture of private jets in the driveway attracted me as a
- [<em>Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution</em> (Tucker Carlson)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/10/28/book-review-ship-of-fools-how-a-selfish-ruling-class-is-bringing-america-to-the-brink-of-revolution-tucker-carlson/) - Ship of Fools extends the recent run of books that attack the American ruling class as decayed and awful. However it is characterized, as the professional-management elite, the Front Row Kids, or one of many other labels, all these books argue the ruling class is running our country into the ground, and most argue it
- [<em>The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America</em> (Oren Cass)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/12/24/book-review-the-once-and-future-worker-a-vision-for-the-renewal-of-work-in-america-oren-cass/) - I have often complained that human flourishing cannot consist of increases in GDP that permit us all to buy more cheap Chinese crap every year. Oren Cass has arrived to say exactly why that is, and what we should focus on instead. He also adds important related thoughts, including very specific and reality-based policy recommendations.
- [<em>Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland</em> (Christopher R. Browning)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/11/02/ordinary-men-reserve-police-battalion-101-and-the-final-solution-in-poland-christopher-r-browning/) - It seems to me that we in the West are like men in a cavern, out of which lead many paths, none signposted. Some paths lead to bright futures, but other paths lead to terrible ones, among them those where, once again as we did not so very long ago, we slaughter each other over
- [<em>Built: The Hidden Stories Behind our Structures</em> (Roma Agrawal)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/06/17/built-the-hidden-stories-behind-our-structures-roma-agrawal/) - 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 number crunching, not glamour. But the result is something useful to mankind, and even sometimes beautiful, so it must be satisfying for an engineer to see
- [<em>Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century</em> (Mark Sedgwick)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/11/30/book-review-against-the-modern-world-traditionalism-and-the-secret-intellectual-history-of-the-twentieth-century-mark-sedgwick-dup/) - This book is an academic study of an obscure movement, Traditionalism. The name has a specific meaning; it does not mean traditional forms of belief, that is, generically, conservatism. Rather, "Traditionalism" is a type of Gnosticism, holding that a core of hidden knowledge, contained within all true religion, is the cure for what ails the
- [<em>Gun Control in Nazi-Occupied France: Tyranny and Resistance</em> (Stephen P. Halbrook)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/11/21/book-review-gun-control-in-nazi-occupied-france-tyranny-and-resistance-stephen-p-halbrook/) - This is an academic monograph, rather than a work of propaganda or political inspiration. Those looking for a rabble-rousing polemic in the style of today’s mass-popular conservative authors, or of a Wayne LaPierre speech, will be disappointed. What the reader gets instead is far more valuable: an understanding of modern history as it relates to
- [<em>Before Church and State: A Study of Social Order in the Sacramental Kingdom of St. Louis IX</em> (Andrew Willard Jones)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/12/22/book-review-before-church-and-state-a-study-of-social-order-in-the-sacramental-kingdom-of-st-louis-ix-andrew-willard-jones/) - Like Diogenes searching for an honest man, I spend my days searching for a useful political program. Necessarily rejecting all Left philosophies as anti-human and anti-reality, I go searching through the thickets on the Right, where of late various new approaches have arisen, to accompany various old ones that are getting fresh attention. They do
- ["The Regime Will Crumble Soon. Then What?" on Counter-Flow, with Buck Johnson](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/09/15/the-regime-will-crumble-soon-then-what-on-counter-flow-with-buck-johnson/) - Now available is my discussion on Counter-Flow, with Buck Johnson! We discuss the crumbling of the regime, creepy Dark Brandon, my time as a manual worker, and what you should tell your children. You can find the episode here in audio, or on other podcast platforms, or here in video. You can follow Buck on
- [<em>Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America</em> (Chris Arnade)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/07/24/dignity-seeking-respect-in-back-row-america-chris-arnade/) - 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 a change, to ignore the externals and imagine myself conversing with individuals with whom, to an outside observer, I have nothing in common. Chris Arnade wrote
- [Podcast with Good Ol Boyz: Foundationalism with Charles](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/04/13/podcast-with-good-ol-boyz-foundationalism-with-charles/) - My recent appearance with Maarek and Bog Beef of the Good Ol Boyz podcast. We cover patronage, elites, what young people should do with an eye to the future, as well as much more. And, of course, we talk about Foundationalism. This one should not be missed. It is available here on Patreon (audio only—no
- [<em>Bronze Age Mindset</em> (Bronze Age  Pervert)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/09/23/bronze-age-mindset-bronze-age-pervert/) - 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, the chaotic fluidity of today’s Right is something entirely new. There are no straight lines of sight; all is a jumble of splintered mirrors. In this
- [<em>The Republican Workers Party: How the Trump Victory Drove Everyone Crazy, and Why It Was Just What We Needed</em> (F. H. Buckley)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/11/23/book-review-the-republican-workers-party-how-the-trump-victory-drove-everyone-crazy-and-why-it-was-just-what-we-needed-f-h-buckley/) - Along with left-wing books decrying the supposed Trump-driven decline of democracy, I have been reading right-wing books about the supposed Trump-driven realignment of politics. They have mostly been tedious, and this one, Frank Buckley’s The Republican Workers Party, has not improved my mood. It is poorly written, unoriginal, blinkered, simplistic, and annoying. Worst of all,
- [The Stakes: Trajectory of Tyranny (Michael Anton and Charles)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/03/05/the-stakes-trajectory-of-tyranny-michael-anton-and-charles/) - The people, they demand yet more Michael Anton and Charles! This time, of Ukraine, Canada, and tyranny in general and as currently being applied. I am again pleased to announce that The Claremont Institute, in the form of The American Mind, a publication of the Institute, has published another Special Edition of its regular podcast,
- [<em>I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon</em> (Crystal Zevon)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/02/23/ill-sleep-when-im-dead-the-dirty-life-and-times-of-warren-zevon-crystal-zevon/) - To the extent you have heard of Warren Zevon, it is probably because David Letterman devoted an entire episode of Late Night to him when Zevon was dying, in 2002. That appearance shined up Zevon’s star, which had faded greatly since his glory days in the 1970s. It was not the mere fact of Zevon’s
- ["The Death of Late-Stage Leftism," on The Pete Quinones Show](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/02/17/the-death-of-late-stage-liberalism-on-the-pete-quinones-show/) - Now available is my (second) discussion on The Pete Quinones Show! We discuss my recent article, Against Counsels of Defeat, Canadian truckers, regime fragility, and the inevitability of Left violence. You can find the episode here in audio, or on other podcast platforms, or in video (Odysee or YouTube). You can follow Pete on his
- ["Building the Post-Liberal Future," on Counter-Flow, with Buck Johnson](https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/02/15/building-the-post-liberal-future-on-counter-flow-with-buck-johnson/) - Now available is my discussion on Counter-Flow, with Buck Johnson! We discuss Foundationalism, Orthodoxy, and how our coming post-liberal future is going to be super awesome—if we play it right. You can find the episode here in audio, or on other podcast platforms, or here in video. You can follow Buck on his website, or
- [<em>Defying Hitler: A Memoir</em> (Sebastian Haffner)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/07/26/book-review-defying-hitler-a-memoir-sebastian-haffner/) - “Defying Hitler” is one of those relatively few books (available widely in English at least) that are contemporaneous memoirs of events relating to the Third Reich. Any book, memoir or not, written after the war necessarily suffers from hindsight perception, so contemporaneous material is particularly interesting. (The classic modern example is Victor Klemperer’s diaries, which
- [<em>After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory</em> (Alasdair MacIntyre)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/02/23/book-review-after-virtue-a-study-in-moral-theory-alasdair-macintyre/) - The poor Enlightenment. Trapped by its inherent contradictions, we in the West find ourselves locked into playing out the game set by it, struggling to make the best of a bad hand until inevitably forced to fold, though the precise manner and consequences of that folding are yet to be determined. The Enlightenment’s defenders, cut-rate
- [<em>The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—and Why</em> (Amanda Ripley)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/11/09/book-review-the-unthinkable-who-survives-when-disaster-strikes-and-why-amanda-ripley/) - The Unthinkable is basically a self-improvement manual. But the promised self-improvement isn’t better organization, inner peace or higher task efficiency; rather it is increased odds of living through a disaster. And while the book accomplishes the goal of self-help for the attentive reader, even more it shows that who lives and who dies mostly results
- [<em>The Firm, the Market, and the Law</em> (R. H. Coase)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/03/22/book-review-firm-market-law-r-h-coase/) - [Admin's Note: This is a guest post by Jared, a Canadian and grudging dilettante with too much time on his hands.] As I continue to re-evaluate my take on the economics of the 20th century, Coase's work stands out as well as or better than it ever did. Ronald Coase is probably my favourite economist
- [<em>The Digest of Justinian</em> (Translated by Charles Henry Monro)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/04/23/book-review-digest-justinian-translated-charles-henry-monro/) - [Admin’s Note: This is a guest post by Jared, who only recently realised it's "servandus," not "servadus."] The Corpus Juris Civilis was a monumental achievement. Justinian I of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire set out to collect and condense the disparate laws that had evolved in Rome, and then set them down in a
- [<em>Ancient Law: Its Connection with the Early History of Society, and its Relation to Modern Ideas</em> (Henry Sumner Maine)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/04/18/book-review-ancient-law-connection-early-history-society-relation-modern-ideashenry-sumner-maine/) - [Admin's Note: This is a guest post by Jared, who is most definitely not a lawyer, nor a historian.] Henry Sumner Maine was an Englishman of the High Victorian era, i.e., the late 19th century. His Popular Government, a book discussing the properties and deficiencies of broad-suffrage democracy, is often recommended by reactionaries in the
- [<em>The Common Law</em> (Oliver Wendell Holmes)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/08/02/book-review-common-lawoliver-wendell-holmes/) - [Admin's Note: This is a guest post by Jared, who has a tendency to drift between British and American spellings, but who has recently been trying to standardise (ha ha) on the former.] One of the most interesting topics to me, a total neophyte in the field of law, is the comparison between civil law
- [<em>Jesus Land</em> (Julia Scheeres)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/08/31/book-review-jesus-land-julia-scheeres/) - I think I’m well-positioned to review this book, because I grew up with Julia and David Scheeres. More precisely, we all went to Lafayette Christian School through eighth grade. Both Julia and David were in my brother’s elementary school class, one year ahead of me. Jerome, her older adopted brother, was in the class two
- [<em>A History of Venice</em> (John Julius Norwich)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/01/31/book-review-a-history-of-venice-john-julius-norwich/) - This long but smoothly written book, by the very recently deceased John Julius Norwich, scion of English nobility, covers more than a thousand years of Venetian history. Nowadays Venice is mostly known as an overloaded tourist destination, or as a victim of environmental degradation, rather than as the world power it was for most of
- [<em>Eumeswil</em> (Ernst Jünger)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/01/21/book-review-eumeswil-ernst-junger/) - Ernst Jünger’s Eumeswil, one of the famous German’s last works, published when he was eighty-two years old, is often regarded as an exposition of libertarian thought. This is understandable, but completely wrong. Such a reading attempts to shoehorn concepts in which Jünger had little interest, or toward which he was actively hostile, into an exploration
- [Announcement: Podcast Discussion between Alex Kaschuta and Charles](https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/09/23/announcement-podcast-discussion-between-alex-kaschuta-and-charles/) - Are you looking for doomer optimism? Look no further. Now available across all platforms is my discussion with Alex Kaschuta, host of The Subversive Podcast. We talk about regime fragility, what is to come, Space, and how good our future can be! You can find the episode here in audio, or on all the standard
- [<em>Mine Were of Trouble</em> (Peter Kemp)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/04/13/mine-were-of-trouble-peter-kemp/) - Among the many tools of the superbly effective Left propaganda machine, one of the most effective is its control of publishing. Leftists use this to ensure that innumerable books fitting the Left narrative stay in print indefinitely, primarily for use as indoctrination tools in schools, as a glance at any modern curriculum at any grade
- [<em>Starship Troopers</em> (Robert Heinlein)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/05/12/starship-troopers-robert-heinlein/) - Starship Troopers, sixty years old, is a famous work of science fiction. As with most Robert Heinlein novels, the point is more the ideas than plot or character. Heinlein therefore often swerves dangerously close to message fiction, but it never becomes intolerable. This book is Heinlein’s vehicle to explain who he thinks should rule a
- [<em>The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently . . . and Why</em> (Richard E. Nisbett)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/02/07/book-review-the-geography-of-thought-how-asians-and-westerners-think-differently-and-whyrichard-e-nisbett/) - This is a short book with a sweeping thesis. In essence, the thesis of The Geography of Thought is that many important cognitive processes dominant in East Asian (i.e., Chinese, Japanese and Korean) cultures are substantially different from those processes in Western (i.e., American and European) cultures. This proposition explains a variety of dissimilarities in how
- [<em>Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress</em> (Steven Pinker)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/02/16/book-review-enlightenment-now-the-case-for-reason-science-humanism-and-progress-steven-pinker/) - 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 hand, Pinker is an able thinker and clear writer, free of much of the ideological cant and distortions of vision that today accompany most writing about
- [<em>The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America</em> (Richard Rothstein)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/08/15/book-review-the-color-of-lawrichard-rothstein/) - Some years ago, I lived for a time in Oak Park, Illinois. Oak Park has for decades been filled with rich white liberals, who live just across the street from a City of Chicago neighborhood, Austin, that is filled with poor black people. Yet, for some reason the citizens of Oak Park simply can’t fathom,
- [<em>Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy</em> (Jonah Goldberg)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/05/02/book-review-suicide-west-rebirth-tribalism-populism-nationalism-identity-politics-destroying-american-democracyjonah-goldberg/) - 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 their National Review fastness, wondering why the final assault on them has yet to begin—not realizing it is because everyone has forgotten about them. Strictly speaking,
- [<em>How Democracies Die</em> (Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/09/25/book-review-democracies-die-steven-levitsky-daniel-ziblatt/) - 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, and bad in their typesetting. No such badness is evident here—How Democracies Die hits all the points it intends to, and reads crisply and smoothly. But
- [<em> The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States</em> (Jeffrey Lewis)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/08/08/book-review-2020-commission-report-north-korean-nuclear-attacks-united-states-jeffrey-lewis/) - For some time now, I have been telling my children, none of whom have ever lived through any event that significantly harmed America, that sooner or later, history will return. The older ones roll their eyes; the younger ones have no idea what I mean. This book shows what I mean, through a fictionalized look
- [<em>The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation</em> (Rod Dreher)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/03/14/book-review-the-benedict-optionrod-dreher/) - The Benedict Option is, as I expected, an outstanding book. Rod Dreher has definitively shown that he is the Pope Urban of a new and dynamic movement, and this book has occasioned much commentary in the mainstream press. Unfortunately, the main point of Dreher’s book—to make a countercultural call for individual and group Christian renewal
- [<em>From Plato To NATO: The Idea of the West and Its Opponents</em> (David Gress)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/08/07/book-review-plato-nato-idea-west-opponents-david-gress/) - This is a ferociously erudite book. The author, David Gress, offers an analysis and synthesis of essentially all thought on the idea of the West, from the Greeks to the postmodernists, in a book that seems to contain more than its actual six hundred pages of small print. The amount of thought he presents is
- [On Equality and Liberty as Ultimate Ends](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/08/04/analysis-equality-liberty-ultimate-ends/) - Of late, I have repeatedly claimed that the Left’s core goal is to achieve a utopia where all people have complete equality combined with wholly unfettered liberty. This has occasioned numerous queries (especially when one book review was linked on Reddit), asking, in effect, whether this is not internally contradictory. That is, if liberty is
- [<em>The Mountain of Silence: A Search for Orthodox Spirituality</em> (Kyriacos C. Markides)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/07/24/book-review-mountain-silence-search-orthodox-spiritualitykyriacos-c-markides/) - In these days of changing ways, so-called liberated days, it is not only political beliefs that are getting a fresh look from a lot of people, but beliefs about all aspects of human life. These include the beliefs of traditional Christians in America, whose options for Christ-centered communal worship within an organized framework narrow every
- [<em>The Weapon Shops of Isher</em> (A.E. van Vogt)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/02/16/book-review-the-weapon-shops-of-isher-a-e-van-vogt/) - The right to be armed is the right to be free! This call, like the battle cry of the Archangel Michael, Who is like God?!, echoes down the ages of Man. If you are not armed, you are always wholly at the mercy of tyrants. Who can argue with such a truism? A lot of
- [<em>The Golden Key</em> (George MacDonald)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/02/11/book-review-the-golden-key-george-macdonald/) - This is a very famous book, not quite children’s fairy tale and not quite adult allegory—or rather, it’s both, and more. As fairy tale and as allegory, it has so light a touch as to be ethereal, combined with a feeling of enormous substance. There is, for child or adult, little obvious moral, yet the
- [<em>Great Society: A New History</em> (Amity Shlaes)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/03/16/great-society-a-new-history-amity-shlaes/) - A few weeks ago, I watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Quentin Tarantino’s movie delivered to me what I have been seeking. Namely, the exact point America careened off the path to flourishing, abandoning our long, mostly successful search for ever-increasing excellence and achievement. It was 1969. As the shadows lengthen and the
- [<em>Right-Wing Critics of American Conservatism</em> (George Hawley)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/07/29/book-review-right-wing-critics-american-conservatism-george-hawley/) - This is an excellent book, doubly excellent in that the writer, George Hawley, has written a book both even-handed and superbly accurate in detail about a difficult and controversial topic. I am personally deeply familiar with nearly all the facts covered in this book, and Hawley has not fallen into any significant error. Moreover, his
- [On Me](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/07/26/analysis-me/) - The Delphic Maxim “know thyself” has never appealed to me. Why, exactly, is the unexamined life not worth living? Thus, I’ve always been more interested in action than introspection, although that certainly hasn’t stopped me from having extremely positive thoughts about myself. Nobody ever accused me of being self-hating. Nonetheless, my purpose today is to
- [<em>Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of Terror in the French Revolution</em> (R. R. Palmer)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/07/23/book-review-twelve-ruled-year-terror-french-revolutionr-r-palmer/) - Among the many gaping holes in American historical knowledge is any grasp of the French Revolution (and that includes my own knowledge). As an abstract matter, this is unfortunate, but nothing notable, given that the historical knowledge of modern Americans is essentially one large gap. As a concrete matter, though, it is a real problem,
- [<em>Franco: A Biography</em> (Paul Preston)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/04/04/franco-a-biography-paul-preston/) - I am trying something new—analysis of a topic through multiple simultaneous book reviews. The topic is Francisco Franco, and this, Paul Preston's Franco: A Biography, is one of the books. My purpose is to analyze Franco's career and what lessons it tells us today by contrasting and comparing multiple books on the same subject. The
- [<em>The Pastel City </em> (M. John Harrison)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/07/20/book-review-pastel-city-m-john-harrison/) - As can be seen from a casual glance at my book reviews, while I read little fiction, I am keenly interested in science fiction. Sadly, almost all contemporary science fiction is mere social justice agitprop. But there is some quite good relatively modern science fiction, and in particular, I am fond of (no surprise, I
- [<em>The Fiery Angel: Art, Culture, Sex, Politics, and the Struggle for the Soul of the West</em> (Michael Walsh)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/06/29/book-review-fiery-angel-art-culture-sex-politics-struggle-soul-west-michael-walsh/) - Billed as a continuation, this book is really the chiral image of Michael Walsh’s earlier book, The Devil’s Pleasure Palace. That book was an attempt, with limited success, to outline and discuss the poisonous Frankfurt School of political philosophy, Critical Theory, through the prism of art. This book, on the other hand, aims to discuss
- [<em> The Great Convergence: Information Technology and the New Globalization</em> (Richard Baldwin)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/06/21/book-review-the-great-convergence-information-technology-and-the-new-globalization-richard-baldwin/) - This book mostly claims to be a book about “globalization,” today’s trendy word, but really, it is a book about industrial revolutions through time and space. The author, Richard Baldwin, offers a new framework for understanding how the world has developed since the Great Divergence, led by England, that created centuries-long worldwide economic dominance by
- [<em>The Ruling Class: How They Corrupted America and What We Can Do About It </em> (Angelo M. Codevilla)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/06/19/book-review-ruling-class-corrupted-america-can-angelo-m-codevilla/) - I stay away from the shouters, such as Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin. Sure, they’re right in their conclusions, most of the time, but the lack of nuanced thought annoys me. There are plenty of ways to get easily worked up today, without seeking out more that don’t offer a corresponding benefit. Angelo Codevilla is
- [<em>Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About It</em> (Richard V. Reeves)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/06/14/book-review-dream-hoarders-american-upper-middle-class-leaving-everyone-else-dust-problem-richard-v-reeves/) - This isn’t a great book, but it’s a starting point for discussions that are worth having. Richard Reeves gently flogs his own class for their sins, an act he thinks is very daring, though he uses a thin, silken cord and doesn’t put any muscle into it. The upper middle class, he says, is pulling
- [<em>The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss</em> (David Bentley Hart)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/06/13/book-review-experience-god-consciousness-blissdavid-bentley-hart/) - Although this is a book written by one of today’s most prominent Christian theologians, it is not a Christian book. David Bentley Hart’s purpose is to demolish atheism, not to support Christian revelation. Hart’s core point is that all theistic traditions, including the Abrahamic but also the Hindu and Buddhist, and even “various late antique
- [<em>The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society</em> (Brad S. Gregory)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/06/08/book-review-unintended-reformation-religious-revolution-secularized-society-brad-s-gregory/) - Exhaustively documented, and in some ways just exhausting, though at the same time exhilarating, Brad Gregory’s The Unintended Reformation is a towering achievement. It synthesizes centuries of history and multiple avenues of thought to analyze how we arrived at certain negative aspects of modernity. Gregory’s claim is that we got here as the result of
- [<em>The Apple and the Arrow</em> (Mary and Conrad Buff)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/04/06/the-apple-and-the-arrow-mary-and-conrad-buff/) - Do any American children learn about William Tell today? Do any Swiss children learn about him? Very few, if any, I suspect. My children do, but only because last year I was reminded of William Tell by Ernst Jünger’s The Forest Passage, and so I went and bought what few children’s books are still in
- [<em>SAM: One Robot, a Dozen Engineers, and the Race to Revolutionize the Way We Build</em> (Jonathan Waldman)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/05/23/sam-one-robot-a-dozen-engineers-and-the-race-to-revolutionize-the-way-we-build-jonathan-waldman/) - The classic American path to technological success has been for driven tinkerers to obsessively work to solve a problem, from Eli Whitney to Thomas Edison to Steve Jobs. Such men strove to enrich themselves while benefiting others. SAM, the tale of one Scott Peters and his ten-year attempt to create a bricklaying robot, narrates such
- [<em>The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics</em> (Salena Zito and Brad Todd)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/05/24/book-review-great-revolt-inside-populist-coalition-reshaping-american-politics-salena-zito-brad-todd/) - Most honest postmortems of Trump’s election are by Democrats focusing on what they missed. Usually, they are either narrow exercises in vote counting or more holistic attempts to understand Trump voters. In the latter group are Joan Williams’s White Working Class and Ken Stern’s Republican Like Me. The common thread in these is discovery, a
- [<em>Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond</em> (William Dalrymple and Anita Anand)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/05/19/book-review-koh-noor-history-worlds-infamous-diamond-william-dalrymple-anita-anand/) - Koh-i-Noor is not about the diamond, to my disappointment. Oh, sure, it makes an appearance here and there in this book. But very little is actually said here about the diamond itself, probably because the Queen of England hasn’t made it available for analysis and study, and prior generations didn’t record much about its specifics.
- [<em>The Beekeeper's Lament: How One Man and Half a Billion Honey Bees Help Feed America</em> (Hannah Nordhaus)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/01/27/the-beekeepers-lament-how-one-man-and-half-a-billion-honey-bees-help-feed-america-hannah-nordhaus/) - As befits one who seeks to be a man of wealth and taste (if I have to choose between them, the former), I aspire to live on a vast estate, leading the life of a gentleman farmer. That doesn’t seem to be the immediate future, but we do have enough land to keep some chickens
- [<em>The Scandal of Money</em> (George Gilder)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/07/13/book-review-the-scandal-of-money-george-gilder/) - George Gilder is famous among conservatives. For decades, I have heard positive things about him, primarily for his work in supply-side economics and, more recently, in technology. “The Scandal of Money” is an unsuccessful attempt to combine the two. Criticizing both Left and Right, and most of all Wall Street, Gilder calls for unleashing economic
- [<em>All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery</em> (Henry Mayer)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/05/16/book-review-fire-william-lloyd-garrison-abolition-slavery-henry-mayer/) - William Lloyd Garrison is one of those nineteenth-century American figures about whom most people know a little, realizing they are important to American history, but whom few can discuss with expertise. Into that same category I’d put men like Henry Clay, John Fremont, perhaps even Stephen Douglas, and quite a few others. Garrison is probably
- [<em>Why Liberalism Works: How True Liberal Values Produce a Freer, More Equal, Prosperous World for All</em> (Deirdre Nansen McCloskey)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/09/01/why-liberalism-works-how-true-liberal-values-produce-a-freer-more-equal-prosperous-world-for-all-deirdre-nansen-mccloskey/) - This is a special review. It is special because it is the last of its kind. I no longer intend to spend my time, and your time, on books that I know to be completely wrong, merely to show they are completely wrong. I am keenly aware of what I call “the closing door,” embodied
- [<em>Straight Talk on Trade: Ideas for a Sane World Economy</em> (Dani Rodrik)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/04/21/book-review-straight-talk-trade-ideas-sane-world-economydani-rodrik/) - I find that my hit percentage on economics books is about fifty percent. One out of every two books I read is excellent, and the other is awful. Very little seems to be in between. Unfortunately for me, this book is in the latter group. It is supposed to be, I think, an effort to
- [<em>The Arms of Krupp 1587–1968</em> (William Manchester)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/04/20/book-review-arms-krupp-1587-1968-william-manchester/) - The late William Manchester, master of twentieth century popular history, made his reputation with this book, published in 1968. There will never be another book on the Krupp family like it, and not just because it’s so long, nearly half a million words and a thousand pages. It is also because the Krupps are largely
- [<em>Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work</em> (Matthew B. Crawford)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/04/17/book-review-shop-class-soulcraft-inquiry-value-workmatthew-b-crawford/) - This is not a book about how you can make more money as a plumber than by going to law school. It is, rather, a book of philosophy, revolving around thoughts on alienation, self-reliance, and what we owe to others. I found it to be both a bit rambling and unexpectedly deep—it manages to connect
- [<em>The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic</em> (Mike Duncan)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/08/03/book-review-storm-storm-beginning-end-roman-republic-mike-duncan/) - How the Roman Republic ended is well known, even in these undereducated days, but all the attention focus goes to Julius Caesar. True, he was the pivot of the actual end of the Republic, but what came before and after was more important. What came after, during the long reign of Augustus, may not be as
- [<em>American Cicero: The Life of Charles Carroll</em> (Bradley J. Birzer)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/04/11/book-review-american-cicero-life-charles-carroll-bradley-j-birzer/) - Charles Carroll, once famous as the only Catholic signatory of the Declaration of Independence and the last signatory to die, is no longer much in the public consciousness. If asked to name a signatory, most people would say “John Hancock,” since he wrote his name in big letters. Thomas Jefferson would also come to mind;
- [Against Masks](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/05/28/against-masks/) - The great social argument of this instant is whether everyone should now, because of the Wuhan Plague, be required to wear face masks, and if so, under what circumstances. Today, therefore, I will offer a complete analysis of mask wearing, something I have seen nowhere else. True, I normally disdain writing about transitory matters, which
- [On the Subjective Mental State of Liberals](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/11/04/on-the-subjective-mental-state-of-liberals/) - 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 identical for all sentient beings. Instead, he held that for each type of conscious being, there is a unique mindset embodying what it feels like to
- [On Preemptive Apologies by Conservatives](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/09/19/analysis-preemptive-apologies-conservatives/) - 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 fantasies that underlie their opponents’ cancerous and bankrupt ideologies, conservative arguments present themselves at the door like starving beggars clad in rags. This is bad, but
- [<em>The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter</em> (David Sax)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/03/28/book-review-revenge-analog-real-things-matter-david-sax/) - Although no author likes to have his book lumped with another, this book is an excellent complement to Tim Wu’s The Attention Merchants. Both books discuss, from different angles, possible practical reactions to the modern dominance of digital toys and tools. Today, when companies such as Facebook and Google are increasingly under fire from across
- [<em>Infantry Platoon And Squad ATP 3-21.8</em> (United States Army)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/03/27/book-review-infantry-platoon-squad-atp-3-21-8-united-states-army/) - As will surprise nobody who is paying any attention, I am preparing for war. Why hide it? Although only a fool or someone with a distorted moral sense would actually wish for war, what we wish has little to do with it. Intermittent war is the natural state of man, whatever Steven Pinker may say,
- [<em>12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos</em> (Jordan B. Peterson)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/03/23/book-review-12-rules-life-antidote-chaos-jordan-b-peterson/) - A friend of mine has been pushing me to look into Jordan Peterson for the past six months. I thought, since my friend is conservative, that Peterson offered right-wing politics, and it is true that he has recently been in the news for his thoughts on certain charged topics. However, Peterson does not, in fact,
- [<em>Conformity: The Power of Social Influences</em> (Cass R. Sunstein)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/07/20/conformity-the-power-of-social-influences-cass-r-sunstein/) - 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 common sense is confirmed by logic and experiment. Worse, because he makes it feel pedantic. But if you reflect on the discussions in this book, and
- [<em>Republics Ancient & Modern, Vol. 2: New Modes & Orders in Early Modern Political Thought</em> (Paul Rahe)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/03/14/book-review-republics-ancient-modern-vol-2-new-modes-orders-early-modern-political-thoughtpaul-rahe/) - To my surprise, I found this to be an extremely topical book, even though it discusses only people long dead. It bridges, or at least brings more clarity to the framework of, recent bestselling books such as Patrick Deneen’s Why Liberalism Failed and Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now. The former claims that the Enlightenment was a
- [<em>How to Die: An Ancient Guide to the End of Life</em> (Seneca & James S. Romm)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/03/13/book-review-die-ancient-guide-end-lifeseneca-james-s-romm/) - How to Die, compiled from various writings of the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca by the excellent James Romm, assembles Seneca’s thoughts on death. Seneca died during the reign of the emperor Nero, in A.D. 65, having been “encouraged” by him to commit suicide. The reason for the compiling and publication of this book, presumably, is
- [<em>Can It Happen Here? Authoritarianism in America</em> (Cass Sunstein, ed.)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/03/08/book-review-can-happen-authoritarianism-americacass-sunstein-ed/) - Cass Sunstein has gathered an ensemble cast of today’s intellectual Davoisie to tell us, in seventeen separate essays, whether Trump is the harbinger of American structural doom, and if so, how. It is illuminating to read this book immediately after having read Glenn Reynolds’s The Judiciary’s Class War, with its distinction between the ruling Front-Row
- [<em>God Is Not Nice: Rejecting Pop Culture Theology and Discovering the God Worth Living For</em> (Ulrich L. Lehner)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/03/01/book-review-god-is-not-nice-rejecting-pop-culture-theology-and-discovering-the-god-worth-living-for-ulrich-l-lehner/) - As I so often complain, the quality of modern discourse is atrocious. Probably this is due to everyone being told for decades that his opinion always matters, along with a belief that democracy means all opinions are equally valid regardless of reasoning, capped off by modern avenues of communication that allow easy, free broadcasting of
- [<em>Laughing Shall I Die: Lives and Deaths of the Great Vikings</em> (Tom Shippey)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/07/10/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 that all people are basically the same, and what they want, most of all, is ease and comfort. Real Vikings prove this false. Instead, they reflect back to us a strange combination of very bad behavior and until-the-last-dog-dies virtue. Tom Shippey
- [<em>Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief</em> (Lawrence Wright)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/05/04/going-clear-scientology-hollywood-and-the-prison-of-belief-lawrence-wright/) - We all know religious devotion has declined precipitously in America. Most of what religion remains is Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, which is the sherbet of religions, an unsatisfying imitation of the real thing. No doubt this decline is temporary, since the human religious impulse, toward transcendence and final meaning, is too strong to remain unsatisfied. The
- [<em>Windfall: How the New Energy Abundance Upends Global Politics and Strengthens America’s Power</em> (Meghan O'Sullivan)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/02/27/book-review-windfall-how-the-new-energy-abundance-upends-global-politics-and-strengthens-americas-powermeghan-osullivan/) - A few weeks ago, I watched a bad movie on Netflix—The Cloverfield Effect. This near-future science fiction film (distantly related to the original Cloverfield, an updated Godzilla-type movie) revolved around a disastrous attempt to generate unlimited energy in space, needed because the entire world was “two years from running out of all energy.” Yes, that’s
- [<em>The Decadent Society: How We Became a Victim of Our Own Success</em> (Ross Douthat)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/03/28/the-decadent-society-how-we-became-a-victim-of-our-own-success-ross-douthat/) - Almost always one reads a book of future-looking political theory long before or long after its substance has been proven or disproven. It is quite another experience to observe theory offered just yesterday as it morphs today into reality. So it is with The Decadent Society, released in February, a month ago. It sharply identifies
- [<em>The Judiciary's Class War</em> (Glenn Harlan Reynolds)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/02/24/book-review-the-judiciarys-class-war-glenn-harlan-reynolds/) - In this brief book, or rather pamphlet in the old political, Tom Paine-ish use of that term, law professor and well-known blogger Glenn Reynolds offers some thoughts on how the class structure of the judiciary affects judicial decisions. Rather than focus on the general class divide in American society, Reynolds focuses on that divide in
- [<em>Lenin: The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror</em> (Victor Sebestyen)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/02/24/book-review-lenin-the-man-the-dictator-and-the-master-of-terrorvictor-sebestyen/) - When we think of the Soviet Union, we mostly think of it as a fully realized totalitarian state. We think of Stalin, of World War II and of the Cold War. Lenin is a shadowy figure to most of us, usually lumped in with the chaos that preceded and surrounded the Russian Revolution. As a
- [<em>The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt</em> (Edmund Morris)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/02/14/book-review-the-rise-of-theodore-roosevelt-edmund-morris/) - This is a forty-year-old biography that is as fresh today as it was in the 1970s. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt is the best-known of modern biographies of Theodore Roosevelt, although it only covers his life up to his accession to the Presidency, in 1901. It wholly warrants its reputation—the writing is clear and compelling,
- [<em>The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity</em> (Robert Louis Wilken)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/02/11/book-review-the-first-thousand-years-a-global-history-of-christianityrobert-louis-wilken/) - I think Robert Louis Wilken is fantastic, but this is the weakest book of his that I have read. It is not that it is bad, or wrong, or stupid, in any way. It is that it falls into the genre I call “capsule history,” where many short chapters cover different happenings, and only a
- [<em>The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World</em> (Charles C. Mann)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/02/09/book-review-the-wizard-and-the-prophet-two-remarkable-scientists-and-their-dueling-visions-to-shape-tomorrows-world-charles-c-mann/) - 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, does not answer that question, though I think his answer would be, if forced, “probably yes.” What Mann offers, rather than canned answers, is a refreshingly
- [<em>Coolidge</em> (Amity Shlaes)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/07/18/book-review-coolidge-amity-shlaes/) - My conclusion, after reading this book, is that Calvin Coolidge is grossly under-rated. Actually, that’s not quite right, because to be under-rated, you first have to be known. As far as I can tell, nearly nobody in America today knows much if anything about Coolidge. I certainly didn’t before reading this book. Yet not only
- [<em>The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression</em> (Amity Shlaes)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/09/10/book-review-the-forgotten-man-a-new-history-of-the-great-depression-amity-shlaes/) - “The Forgotten Man” is both history and warning. It’s a great social/political history of the Depression. Rather than a recitation of economic facts, it emphasizes the personalities of relevant leaders in many fields and views the Depression through their interactions, with particular focus on the inability of the government to actually fix the Depression, despite
- [<em>The Middle Ages</em> (Johannes Fried)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/01/27/book-review-the-middle-agesjohannes-fried/) - It is universally accepted today that the Dark Ages are a myth, roughly as believable as the Australian bunyip. In fact, medieval Europe was far more dynamic and far more intelligent than it was once portrayed. Certainly, post-Roman Europe underwent material decline, and it temporarily lost the high culture, and high thought, of Rome. But
- [<em>The Throne of Adulis: Red Sea Wars on the Eve of Islam</em> (G. W. Bowersock)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/03/09/the-throne-of-adulis-red-sea-wars-on-the-eve-of-islam-g-w-bowersock/) - When we think of Late Antiquity, we usually think of Rome, either its decline in the West or its continuation in the East. When we are feeling particularly adventurous, we may think of the Sassanid Persians, or ponder the stirrings of the Franks in the dark forests of Gaul. We usually don’t think of the
- [<em>The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook</em> (Niall Ferguson)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/01/24/book-review-the-square-and-the-tower-networks-and-power-from-the-freemasons-to-facebook-niall-ferguson/) - This book, by the always fascinating Niall Ferguson (though his main product for sale is always himself), analyzes capsule summaries of episodes from history, in order to negatively contrast spontaneous, networked action (the “square”) with hierarchical control (the “tower”). Two theses flow from this, one stated early on, the other only explicitly presented at the
- [<em>The Collapse of Complex Societies</em> (Joseph A. Tainter)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/01/24/book-review-the-collapse-of-complex-societies-joseph-a-tainter/) - In the middle part of the twentieth century, before The Walking Dead, the historiography of civilizational collapse was dominated by Arnold Toynbee’s multi-volume A Study of History, with his “challenge and response” dynamic. Before that, stretching back into the nineteenth century, other analyses analogized the lives of civilizations to the lives of humans, most notably
- [<em>The Betrayal of American Prosperity: Free Market Delusions, America's Decline, and How We Must Compete in the Post-Dollar Era</em> (Clyde Prestowitz)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/01/17/book-review-the-betrayal-of-american-prosperity-free-market-delusions-americas-decline-and-how-we-must-compete-in-the-post-dollar-eraclyde-prestowitz/) - For decades, “free trade” has been the American orthodoxy across the mainstream of both Left and Right. Some recent erosion has occurred, though, with the Bernie Sanders Left dividing from the neoliberal Left on this issue, and with the reactionary and Trumpian segments of the Right dividing from the corporatist Right. However, cogent, clear-eyed intellectual
- [<em>Reflections on the Revolution In Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West</em> (Christopher Caldwell)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/01/15/book-review-reflections-on-the-revolution-in-europe-immigration-islam-and-the-west-christopher-caldwell/) - This book, published in 2009, shows its age. It was written before the mass immigration to Europe of the past few years, and also before the increase in Muslim terror. While nothing the book says is wrong, and its analysis is sound enough (though it nowhere justifies, or even attempts to justify, the echo of
- [<em>The Language of the Third Reich</em> (Victor Klemperer)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/01/11/book-review-the-language-of-the-third-reich-victor-klemperer/) - Victor Klemperer is famous today for his diaries covering the Nazi era in Germany. But those were published in 1995, thirty-five years after his death. The only book he published in his lifetime was this one, in 1947: The Language of the Third Reich. Its original title, Lingua Tertii Imperii: Notizbuch eines Philologen (i.e., Notebook
- [<em>Ibn Khaldun: An Intellectual Biography</em> (Robert Irwin)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/08/09/ibn-khaldun-an-intellectual-biography-robert-irwin/) - 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 to be academic. I learned something about the famous medieval Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun, but I would have been lost if I did not already know
- [<em>Invisible Planets</em> (Hannu Rajaniemi)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/08/07/invisible-planets-hannu-rajaniemi/) - 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 is painting with a broad brush, but you read “The Little Match Girl” and tell me I’m wrong. Even Andersen’s stories that are not overtly melancholy
- [<em>Age of Fracture</em> (Daniel T. Rodgers)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/01/12/book-review-age-of-fracturedaniel-t-rodgers/) - When I first started reading this book, which I pulled more or less at random off my shelf, I was a little mystified why I had bought it. I thought, from its title, it would be political philosophy, but instead it was intellectual history, of the last quarter of the twentieth century. The book seemed
- [<em>Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master’s Insights on China, the United States, and the World</em> (Graham Allison)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/02/09/lee-kuan-yew-the-grand-masters-insights-on-china-the-united-states-and-the-world-graham-allison/) - For Americans who think that so-called liberal democracy is neither, and in any case is a dead end, successful modern societies with a different political model always intrigue. In the West, notable such are Hungary and Poland, who have effectively executed a mild and tentative turn away from the most extreme vices of liberal democracy,
- [<em>The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals in Politics</em> (Mark Lilla)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/01/14/book-review-the-reckless-mind-intellectuals-in-politics-mark-lilla/) - Mark Lilla’s books are all polished gems, perfectly and fluidly written, brief yet complete within the ambit Lilla sets for each of his works. This book, The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals in Politics, was written about a decade after the collapse of Communism. From its title, the casual browser might think it was a general attack
- [<em>Stasiland: Stories from behind the Berlin Wall</em> (Anna Funder)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/01/13/book-review-stasiland-anna-funder/) - The wicked reality of Communism has, over the past twenty-five years, been deliberately erased from Western education and, more broadly, from the Western mind. This was entirely predictable. The reasons behind the erasure are not complex. The ruling classes and social tastemakers in the West at the time that Communism fell, and for decades before
- [<em>Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World</em> (Laura Spinney)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/11/15/book-review-pale-rider-the-spanish-flu-of-1918-and-how-it-changed-the-world-laura-spinney/) - Since I am an apocalypse monger, but a practical one, I do not worry about alien invasions or the reversal of Earth’s magnetic field, but I do worry about pandemics. This book, Laura Spinney’s Pale Rider, is a recent offering in the pandemic literature that has become popular in the past twenty years. It focuses
- [<em>The Accursed Tower: The Fall of Acre and the End of the Crusades</em> (Roger Crowley)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/01/24/the-accursed-tower-the-fall-of-acre-and-the-end-of-the-crusades-roger-crowley/) - I often say that the Crusades were a high point of Western civilization. And they were, but they were also an example of flawed glory. Certainly, the goal of the Crusades was peerlessly laudable, and the virtues shown by Crusaders admirable. At the same time, the Holy Land Crusades illustrated key weaknesses of the West,
- [<em>Nemesis: Alcibiades and the Fall of Athens</em> (David Stuttard)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/01/14/nemesis-alcibiades-and-the-fall-of-athens-david-stuttard/) - We live in an age lacking dynamic leadership. We are instead led, if one can call it that, by men who are clowns, feminized, or confused—or, often, by confused feminized clowns. The idea of a charismatic, ambitious, intelligent, unapologetically masculine leader has entirely vanished from our minds, in part because we see no examples among
- [<em>Ages of Discord: A Structural-Demographic Analysis of American History</em> (Peter Turchin)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/01/10/ages-of-discord-a-structural-demographic-analysis-of-american-history-peter-turchin/) - I am skeptical of those who predict the future by looking at the past. It’s not that history follows a random walk, like the stock market. Quite the contrary—it is easy to show certain patterns in history. But predicting how and when those patterns will yield any particular result in any given society seems like
- [<em>How to be a Conservative</em> (Roger Scruton)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/11/17/book-review-how-to-be-a-conservative-roger-scruton/) - English traditional conservatives today exhibit a depressed passivity. They ruminate, probably with a glass of claret in hand, on how good the past was and how little can be done about today. Doubtless this enervation has to do with living in The Place Where Great Britain Used To Be, which is, like most of Europe
- [<em>Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s</em> (Frederick Lewis Allen)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/01/08/only-yesterday-an-informal-history-of-the-1920s-frederick-lewis-allen/) - Much modern popular history is mendacious, written with an ideological agenda that deliberately distorts, or omits, or simply lies about, the truth. Sometimes, therefore, reading history written in the past can offer better information. Earlier historians were often more objective, ideology being less prevalent. Their biases, if they have any, are usually obvious. Thus I
- [<em>The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy</em> (Mariana Mazzucato)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2020/01/06/the-value-of-everything-making-and-taking-in-the-global-economy-mariana-mazzucato/) - I have long known in my gut that usual measures of social wealth, most of all GDP, are fraudulent, in that they falsely identify value where there is none. I have intuited we were all being lied to, and that those who assured us that ever more value was being generated by our society by
- [On Space](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/07/13/on-space/) - 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 it is a politics of future past. It is to be a new thing, informed by the wisdom of the old, constructed around what is past,
- [<em>The Revolt of the Masses</em> (José Ortega y Gasset)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/03/24/book-review-revolt-masses-jose-ortega-y-gasset/) - Oh, but this is a fascinating book. Written in 1930 by the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset, it is one of those books that is occasionally mentioned, especially recently, but rarely actually read. 1930, in Spain, was the hinge of fate, and it has been nearly a hundred years since Ortega wrote. That means
- [<em>Makers and Takers</em> (Rana Foroohar)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/09/25/book-review-makers-and-takersrana-foroohar/) - Imprisoned inside this book is a good book screaming to get out. Buried alive, like the Man in the Iron Mask, this Hidden Book offers worthwhile insights into, and criticism of, the crony capitalism that has choked the free market out of our finance system. But the Hidden Book has disappeared from view under the
- [<em>Light Infantry Tactics:  For Small Teams</em> (Christopher Larsen)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/12/28/book-review-light-infantry-tactics-for-small-teams-christopher-larsen/) - In these latter days, many people in flyover country have been preparing for the Apocalypse. This is not the Apocalypse of St. John, depicted memorably, if flatly and with bad theology, in the Left Behind series of books. No, this is a secular apocalypse, driven by many different fears. These range from the semi-reasonable (pandemics
- [<em>Frederick the Second: Wonder of the World 1194-1250</em> (Ernst Kantorowicz)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/11/19/frederick-the-second-wonder-of-the-world-1194-1250-ernst-kantorowicz/) - This book defies easy characterization. It is, to be sure, a biography of the last of the great German medieval emperors, Frederick II Hohenstaufen. But it vibrates with a subdued roar under the surface. By turns it is fierce, melodramatic, evocative, pitying, and electric. Maybe, in 1927, with Germany at its nadir, Ernst Kantorowicz was
- [<em>Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family</em> (Anne-Marie Slaughter)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/11/12/book-review-unfinished-business-women-men-work-family-anne-marie-slaughter/) - Anne-Marie Slaughter’s book is compelling. But too frequently it relies on unsupported, and in fact unvoiced, assumptions. And like a stick figure with one leg, the result is instability. “Unfinished Business” lays out a solid case for social change, buttressed by data and concluding in policy proposals. Unlike with most arguments nowadays for social change,
- [<em>The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction</em> (Matthew B. Crawford)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/11/14/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 dozen. Despite its title, Matthew Crawford’s The World Beyond Your Head is not such an attack. It is far more ambitious. Somewhat to my surprise, it is a direct assault on the Enlightenment for ruining the habits of mind and practice
- [<em>Richard Nixon: The Life</em> (John Farrell)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/04/26/richard-nixon-the-life-john-farrell/) - Richard Nixon’s name is often invoked, but what we hear, for the most part, is not history. Rather it is incantation, much like watching a medieval morality play, where every character has his place, and Nixon’s is Evil. Given this, John Farrell’s 2017 biography performs two services. The first is to go behind the stage
- [<em>West Like Lightning: The Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express</em> (Jim DeFelice)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/01/09/book-review-west-like-lightning-the-brief-legendary-ride-of-the-pony-express-jim-defelice/) - My great-grandmother’s cousin, William Pridham, was a rider for the Pony Express. This is not a family legend, as are many Pony Express stories; he is listed in the Appendix to this book, which is a crisp, compelling story of the brief life of that once-iconic American enterprise. The family connection is really why I
- [<em>The 21: A Journey into the Land of Coptic Martyrs</em> (Martin Mosebach)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/04/23/the-21-a-journey-into-the-land-of-coptic-martyrs-martin-mosebach/) - This book is, brought to the temporal sphere, Revelation 20:4. “I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived
- [On <em>Quillette</em>](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/04/20/on-quillette/) - As American politics splinters, the artificial limits that have calcified journalism for decades also fragment. It is like seeing an expanse covered by acres of concrete suddenly shatter, and, a short time later, the emergence, through the shards, of plant life, freshly exposed to water and light. Some of those new plants are weeds. But
- [<em>Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West</em> (R. R. Reno)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/10/25/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 original diagnosis of how we got to the vicious decay of now with very muted prescriptions. This is a good enough book, earnest and intent, but it is cramped. Reno offers as an alternative not strong gods, nor even coherent positive
- [<em>Resurrecting The Idea Of A Christian Society</em> (R. R. Reno)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/05/10/book-review-resurrecting-the-idea-of-a-christian-society-r-r-reno/) - Already before I began writing this review, I was worn out reading books with a similar theme, that of Christian renewal, including Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option and Charles Chaput’s Strangers in a Strange Land. I was already going to retire and turn to reading biographies for a while. It is not, of course, Reno’s
- [<em>Alexander the Great: His Life and His Mysterious Death</em> (Anthony Everitt)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/10/19/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 successful military leader and conqueror, in the ancient world, he got mixed press, seen as a blend of virtues and faults. In the Middle Ages, and really until the twentieth century, he was usually regarded as among the greatest men of
- [<em>Food City</em> (Joy Santlofer)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/03/23/book-review-food-city-joy-santlofer/) - Food City, by the late Joy Santlofer, shows us the amazing history of manufacturing, in this case food manufacturing, in New York City. Nowadays we don’t associate New York with manufacturing, but as recently as 1950, it was one of the largest manufacturing centers in the country. Reading about this lost past is a fascinating
- [<em>From Fire, by Water: My Journey to the Catholic Faith</em> (Sohrab Ahmari)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/04/14/from-fire-by-water-my-journey-to-the-catholic-faith-sohrab-ahmari/) - This is not a Muslim conversion memoir. Yes, Islam shows up quite a bit in the discussion, as it must in any book that discusses cultures in the Middle East. But Sohrab Ahmari’s conversion was from atheist materialism, the religion of Marx, Nietzsche, and Foucault, to Christianity. True, he had converted to that new religion
- [<em>The New Philistines</em> (Sohrab Ahmari)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/10/09/the-new-philistines-sohrab-ahmari/) - 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. What matter if Ahmari’s prescriptions are not yet fully coherent? The mark of a true leader is one who can inspire others to follow him. A
- [<em>Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past</em> (David Reich)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/04/11/book-review-who-we-are-and-how-we-got-here-ancient-dna-and-the-new-science-of-the-human-past-david-reich/) - We have all heard of the fad for DNA ancestry testing. Being a paranoid, I haven’t joined the crowd, because all testing companies are happy to hand over the results to the police, and what if I need to keep quiet some heinous crime I commit where I leave my DNA behind? Not to mention,
- [<em>The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements</em> (Eric Hoffer)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/04/08/book-review-the-true-believer-thoughts-on-the-nature-of-mass-movements-eric-hoffer/) - Eric Hoffer was, Dwight Eisenhower said in 1952, his favorite philosopher. This endorsement made Hoffer, a self-educated San Francisco stevedore, famous. The True Believer is the book that Eisenhower gave all his friends. Read today, however, this book is mediocre, at best. It is the type of book that congratulates the reader while pretending to
- [<em>After the Flight 93 Election: The Vote that Saved America and What We Still Have to Lose</em>  (Michael Anton)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/04/07/book-review-after-the-flight-93-election-the-vote-that-saved-america-and-what-we-still-have-to-lose-michael-anton/) - Michael Anton is the man who today best communicates the fractures among the Right. He identifies, and exemplifies, growing incompatibilities among conservatives, both on the issues of the day and in beliefs about desirable political structures. Anton first came to public notice under a pseudonym, Publius Decius Mus, writing in 2016 during the brief life
- [<em>Militant Normals: How Regular Americans Are Rebelling Against the Elite to Reclaim Our Democracy</em> (Kurt Schlichter)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/10/07/militant-normals-how-regular-americans-are-rebelling-against-the-elite-to-reclaim-our-democracy-kurt-schlichter-dup/) - Militant Normals is an enjoyable read, a rollicking journey with the acid tongue of Kurt Schlichter as our tour leader. It is full of facts that are impossible to dispute, because they are facts. It draws difficult-to-argue conclusions, including that our near future is likely grim. That said, I think Schlichter’s elite/normal framework misses important
- [<em>Liquid Rules: The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives</em> (Mark Miodownik)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/04/05/book-review-liquid-rules-the-delightful-and-dangerous-substances-that-flow-through-our-lives-mark-miodownik/) - Liquid Rules, like most good books in its genre, explains in an interesting way why certain things are the way they are. This is popularized science, and such books tend to fall into one of two categories, straight science or politicized science. I could have, if I had wanted to read the latter on vacation,
- [<em>Nobody Likes A Goblin</em> (Ben Hatke)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/02/02/book-review-nobody-likes-a-goblin-ben-hatke/) - This is an outstanding children’s book. We got it for our children for Christmas and it became an instant favorite. It’s a clever instantiation of classic themes. On the surface, it’s a reversal of a typical Dungeons & Dragons story, casting the dungeon dwellers as the misunderstood heroes who triumph in the end, through pluck
- [<em>Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages</em> (Anne Mendelson)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/01/30/book-review-milk-the-surprising-story-of-milk-through-the-ages-anne-mendelson/) - I hate milk. I find many of the recipes in this book frankly loathsome, were I to try them, which I won’t. On the other hand, I like science and history (and ice cream). So despite my stomach churning at some of the recipes and descriptions, I actually enjoyed reading this book. Milk begins with
- [<em> Five Children and It</em> (E. Nesbit)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/10/03/book-review-five-children-and-ite-nesbit/) - Five Children and It is a book that resonates on two levels. On one level, it is an outstanding and well-drawn children’s story. We read it to our own children to general acclaim. On another level, it is a glimpse of upper-class child-rearing in Edwardian England, very interesting as social history to today’s adults, even
- [<em>The Samurai</em> (Shūsaku Endō)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/09/20/the-samurai-shusaku-endo/) - 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 the Shimabara Rebellion, a peasant rebellion crushed in 1638, which erupted in reaction to the vicious suppression of Christianity under the Tokugawa Shogunate, part of the
- [<em>The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition</em> (Jonathan Tepper)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/02/27/book-review-the-myth-of-capitalism-monopolies-and-the-death-of-competition-jonathan-tepper/) - The death of the free market at the hands of monopoly has gotten a lot of recent attention. By far the best book about this problem is Tim Wu’s The Curse of Bigness, which through a “neo-Brandeisian” lens focuses on how monopoly destroys the core frameworks of a free society. This book, The Myth of
- [<em>A World Split Apart: Commencement Address Delivered at Harvard University, June 8, 1978</em> (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/09/18/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 early Cold War, when most Americans believed that our “system,” our way of life, was superior to any other—especially Communism, but more broadly any based on any other values. Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn, Nobel Prize winner, was expelled from the Soviet Union in
- [<em>The Battle of Salamis</em> (Barry Strauss)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/11/22/book-review-the-battle-of-salamis-strauss/) - Barry Strauss is a master of the “you are there” style of popular historical writing. His books are accessible and gripping narratives about discrete historical episodes, including Spartacus, the Trojan War, and the death of Caesar. I’m a fan, of course. I’ve read most of his books, and I’m working on finishing the rest. “The
- [<em>The Memoirs of St. Peter: A New Translation of the Gospel According to Mark</em> (Michael Pakaluk)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/09/10/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, rather than committees, seem to be a growth industry. This book, a translation of the Gospel of Saint Mark, joins, among others, Sarah Ruden’s excellent recent work, The Face of Water, which offers both commentary on translation and translation itself, and
- [<em>The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s</em> (William I. Hitchcock)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/02/16/book-review-the-age-of-eisenhower-william-i-hitchcock/) - I have always had a fascination with the 1950s, even though they ended many years before I was born. But I know little that is not trivia or surface knowledge. My excuse is that it seems difficult to find good histories of the 1950s that are not either narrowly focused or crammed with ideological claptrap
- [<em>Singapore: Unlikely Power</em> (John Curtis Perry)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/02/13/book-review-singapore-unlikely-power-john-curtis-perry/) - Singapore is, in some ways, the modern Venice, a maritime city made wealthy by being in the right place, with the right assets, at the right time. Also like Venice, it doesn’t loom large in the modern American imagination. Mostly, if we think of Singapore, it’s as the setting for Crazy Rich Asians. It should
- [<em>The Improbable Wendell Willkie: The Businessman Who Saved the Republican Party and His Country, and Conceived a New World Order</em> (David Levering Lewis)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/09/05/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 invented for this book. To David Levering Lewis, Wendell Willkie was a combination of Saint Michael and Saint Francis. He was a world-bestriding colossus, a credit to his country, and a wonderful exemplar of what a Republican can and should be.
- [<em>A Humane Economy: The Social Framework of the Free Market</em> (Wilhelm Röpke)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/02/03/book-review-a-humane-economy-the-social-framework-of-the-free-market-wilhelm-ropke/) - This classic book, by a long-dead and almost-forgotten German economist, is suddenly relevant again. I have had a copy on my bookshelf for thirty years, never read, and I was startled by how timely A Humane Economy is. Today, elements of Left and Right are ganging up to kick neoliberalism when it’s down, aiming to
- [<em>The Devil's Pleasure Palace</em> (Michael Walsh)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/03/13/book-review-the-devils-pleasure-palace-michael-walsh/) - I read this book because it seemed like it would be an interesting companion to James Burnham’s “Suicide of the West.” Burnham’s book explains and analyzes the ideology of American liberalism, circa 1960. “The Devil’s Pleasure Palace” in a sense continues that story; it explains how that liberalism discovered the Critical Theory leftism of the
- [<em>The Fourth Turning: What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny</em> (William Strauss and Neil Howe)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/01/22/book-review-the-fourth-turning/) - I am almost ashamed to review this book. It is like reviewing Fifty Shades of Grey—the mere fact that someone publicly admits he has read it degrades both him and his listeners. My only defense is that Steve Bannon has repeatedly stated this book is a major influence on his thought. He’s a clever man.
- [<em>American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm</em> (Thomas P. Hughes)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/08/21/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 1870 to 1970. Thomas Hughes published his book in 1989, when Americans believed that the grandeur of American technological achievement had matured into something less flashy, yet more durable and equally pregnant with accomplishment. Hughes linked a valedictory history of early
- [<em>The Rise and Fall of American Growth </em> (Robert Gordon)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/02/18/book-review-the-rise-and-fall-of-american-growth-robert-gordon/) - This book is just not very good. I was excited to read The Rise and Fall of American Growth; it was extensively and positively reviewed and it promised to illuminate an important topic by giving extended, specific analysis. In particular, I wanted to learn about changes in productivity over time. Instead, I first got an
- [<em>The Idea Factory</em> (Jon Gertner)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/09/21/book-review-the-idea-factoryjon-gertner/) - Jon Gertner’s The Idea Factory is a mild corrective to the commonly found anguished certainty that America’s days of innovative scientific greatness are behind us. In its exploration of the might and works of Bell Labs, this book reminds us that genius requires the right cultural environment to flourish, and it addresses whether collective or
- [<em>Liberty, Equality, Fraternity</em> (James Fitzjames Stephen)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/08/16/liberty-equality-fraternity-james-fitzjames-stephen/) - 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 hampered, by anyone at all, except if he is harming others. Bizarrely, this idea, radical in 1860 when Mill published On Liberty, has now even been
- [<em>The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion</em> (Jonathan Haidt)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/11/14/book-review-the-righteous-mind-why-good-people-are-divided-by-politics-and-religion-jonathan-haidt/) - In today’s world, discussion about morals is a lost art. In part, this is because stupidity is on display everywhere, and encouraged to be so, even though most people’s thoughts and opinions are less than worthless, as a glance at Facebook or The New York Times comment sections will tell you. More deeply, it’s because
- [<em>Building the Benedict Option: A Guide to Gathering Two or Three Together in His Name</em> (Leah Libresco)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/12/14/book-review-building-the-benedict-option-a-guide-to-gathering-two-or-three-together-in-his-name-leah-libresco/) - Creating a social movement is hard. Creating a social movement of conservatives is even harder, since for the most part progressives derive much of life’s meaning from social action, while conservatives just want to live their lives. For three years now, Rod Dreher has rung the alarm bell of his Benedict Option, warning that the
- [<em>Dangerous Visions</em> (Harlan Ellison ed.)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/04/10/book-review-dangerous-visions-harlan-ellison-ed/) - “Dangerous Visions” is a semi-legendary compilation of science fiction stories, originally published in 1967, most of them written by legendary science fiction authors. The compilation features both the stories themselves, and for each an introduction and postscript by Harlan Ellison (himself legendary). There is also a longer set of introductions, forwards, etc., at the beginning
- [<em>The Thirty-Year Genocide: Turkey’s Destruction of Its Christian Minorities, 1894–1924</em> (Benny Morris and Dror Ze’evi)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/08/06/the-thirty-year-genocide-turkeys-destruction-of-its-christian-minorities-1894-1924-benny-morris-and-dror-zeevi/) - 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 this extermination, or part of it, is referred to as the Armenian Genocide, except by the Turks, who to this day deny their crimes, and so
- [<em>48 Hours</em> (William Fortschen)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/01/10/book-review-48-hours-william-fortschen/) - I’ve read all of William Fortschen’s books. They’re among the best of apocalypse fiction, a genre dominated by potboilers, so naturally, I preordered this book. My big question was if the author could write something new, especially since at first glance it appears the apocalypse in 48 Hours is very similar to the EMP found
- [<em>Orbánland: How I Came To Understand Viktor Orbán's Hungary And The Future Of Europe</em> (Lasse Skytt)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/07/31/orbanland-how-i-came-to-understand-viktor-orbans-hungary-and-the-future-of-europe-lasse-skytt/) - 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 know much more than most Americans. In fact, the first post-Communist prime minister, József Antall, was my grandfather’s first cousin. On the other hand, my knowledge
- [<em>The New Right: A Journey to the Fringe of American Politics</em> (Michael Malice)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/07/27/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 started National Review to “stand athwart history.” For decades, conservatives looked back to that event as some combination of Moses parting the Red Sea and Prometheus bringing fire to Man. Some still do, dreaming misty-eyed of the past as they fumble
- [<em>The Worm Ouroboros</em> (Eric Rücker Eddison)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/01/25/book-review-the-worm-ouroboros-eric-rucker-eddison/) - This is a strange book. It has always been a strange book, even when first published in 1922. But it’s a very satisfying strange book, and it contains what may be the most fantastic sentence I’ve ever read in a work of fiction. The author, Eric Rücker Eddison, was an English civil servant. He was
- [<em>The Vikings</em> (Robert Ferguson)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/03/20/book-review-the-vikings-robert-ferguson/) - A relatively brief academic history--a bit dry in spots, or very dry if you're looking for a popularized history. And not for you if you're looking for a pseudo-history where women warriors fought alongside men and the fictitious Mother Goddess was worshiped until the eeeeevil Christians came along. No--in this book women don't appear hardly
- [<em>The Social Media Upheaval</em> (Glenn Harlan Reynolds)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/07/06/the-social-media-upheaval-glenn-harlan-reynolds/) - 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 analysis and argument as a parallel to James C. Scott’s Against the Grain, which valorizes Mesopotamian hunter-gatherers. Reynolds’s point is that just as when hunter-gatherers became
- [<em>Unmasking the Administrative State: The Crisis of American Politics in the Twenty-First Century</em> (John Marini)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/07/04/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 complaints focus on the end result: how the administrative state is a tool of the Left, that accomplishes innumerable Left goals, all destructive. Other complaints, more technical, focus on how crucial elements of the American constitutional system, such as separation and
- [<em>Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right</em> (Arlie Hochschild)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/05/24/book-review-strangers-in-their-own-land-anger-and-mourning-on-the-american-right-arlie-hochschild/) - Arlie Hochschild has gone the extra mile, and then some, to understand conservatives. I would say that she exemplifies the (pseudo-) Indian saying, “Never criticize a man until you’ve walked a mile in his moccasins,” except that is not politically correct, so I will not say it. Nonetheless, Hochshild has spent a lot of time
- [On Communitarianism](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/06/29/on-communitarianism/) - 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 pleasant to all just get along. Good beer, good food, good times. Those things seem a lot more attractive, to everyone, including me. True, such hopeful
- [<em>The Fractured Republic: Renewing America's Social Contract in the Age of Individualism</em> (Yuval Levin)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/06/08/book-review-the-fractured-republic-renewing-america’s-social-contract-in-the-age-of-individualism-yuval-levin/) - “The Fractured Republic” is a fantastically original book. It is very optimistic, yet clear-eyed, which is a rare combination. Most optimistic books about modern politics are also simplistic. They typically consist of vague and belligerent paeans demanding the recapture of America’s past. Yuval Levin’s book, on the other hand, is the very opposite. It is
- [<em>Christ the Conqueror of Hell: The Descent into Hades from an Orthodox Perspective</em> (Hilarion Alfeyev)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/06/28/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. It is time to pivot, for a moment, and talk about something totally different—the eternal. This book is a detailed analysis of Eastern Orthodox views of Christ’s descent into Hades, a core yet obscure Christian doctrine found in both the Nicene
- [<em>The War on Normal People: The Truth About America's Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income Is Our Future</em> (Andrew Yang)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/06/19/the-war-on-normal-people-the-truth-about-americas-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 Yang’s manifesto, The War on Normal People. From its title, which subversively suggests there is such a thing as normality, you can tell that Yang is trying to be different. From its subtitle, you can learn of Yang’s core big idea,
- [Announcement: Narration Podcasts & Typeset PDFs](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/06/12/announcement-podcasts-typeset-pdfs/) - I have often received complaints, or let's call it feedback, that people would like to read more of The Worthy House, but really, who can be expected to have time to read long-form writings, especially those as long-form as here? I have some sympathy (though not enough to change the format, or break up pieces
- [<em>The Silk Roads:  A New History of the World</em> (Peter Frankopan)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/01/01/book-review-the-silk-roads-a-new-history-of-the-world-peter-frankopan/) - The East, what in a more direct and confident time we called the Orient, has always held a deep fascination for a certain subset of Westerners. This fascination frequently centers around a whole or partial perceived superiority of the East to the West. For example, not so long ago, there was a vogue for Westerners,
- [<em>Escaping the Russian Bear: An Estonian Girl's Memoir of Loss and Survival During World War II</em> (Kristina von Rosenvinge)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/06/15/escaping-the-russian-bear-an-estonian-girls-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 enjoy is, historically speaking, anomalous and ephemeral. This memoir, by the late Kristina von Rosenvinge, brings this truth to life. It is not a maudlin tale of woe. Instead, it is optimistic and grateful, even though the events it narrates, of
- [<em>Hired: Undercover in Low-Wage Britain</em> (James Bloodworth)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/06/13/hired-undercover-in-low-wage-britain-james-bloodworth/) - James Bloodworth, an English sometime Trotskyite, has written a book which combines the television series Undercover Boss and George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London. He took jobs in a variety of low-wage, low-security occupations to get first-hand knowledge about what it is like today to be a member of the largely invisible
- [<em>Roman Warfare</em> (Adrian Goldsworthy)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/06/08/roman-warfare-adrian-goldsworthy/) - Adrian Goldsworthy is primarily known for lengthy, but highly readable, volumes on Roman history, such as Augustus and The Punic Wars. He has two sidelines, in massive reference works on the Roman military, and in fiction about the Romans. All in all, he’s a busy guy, and I buy every new book he writes. This
- [<em>Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain</em> (Brian A. Catlos)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/05/24/kingdoms-of-faith-a-new-history-of-islamic-spain-brian-a-catlos/) - I read this book, about the history of Spain under Muslim rule, hoping it would be less biased than Darío Fernández-Morera’s The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise, which I found to be too polemical in its criticism of Islamic domination. This book was closer to neutral, on the other side of neutral, but the author,
- [<em>Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind</em> (Yuval Noah Harari)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/05/15/book-review-sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/) - Sapiens is a book of history, but its main thrust is philosophical. It explores, or tries to explore, the conundrum that if man is built to seek meaning, but under modernity there is no meaning to be had, what is man to do? Since the author, Yuval Noah Harari, rejects all meaning as myth, yet
- [<em>Cræft: An Inquiry Into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts</em> (Alexander Langlands)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/05/17/book-review-craeft-an-inquiry-into-the-origins-and-true-meaning-of-traditional-crafts-alexander-langlands/) - Man’s search for meaning is, in these days of alienation and anomie, always a topic that can generate interest. Meaning at its most concrete is tied to the things of Earth, to the nature of man and the world of nature. Thus, if man becomes wholly dissociated from Earth, bad things result. This, in a
- [<em>A Short History of Man: Progress and Decline</em> (Hans-Hermann Hoppe)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/05/20/a-short-history-of-man-progress-and-decline-hans-hermann-hoppe/) - Hans-Hermann Hoppe!, they cried. Hans-Hermann Hoppe! They told me that if I read his books, it would change my life. This is not the first time I have heard that promise; it has been made to me of many books, from Frédéric Bastiat’s The Law to Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. The promise has always failed
- [<em>War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage</em> (Lawrence Keeley)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/01/26/book-review-war-before-civilization-the-myth-of-the-peaceful-savage-lawrence-keeley/) - Anthropology and ethnography are definitely not areas about which I know much, so it is hard for me to tell where this book fits into the professional literature. It is a hybrid—a book by a professional anthropologist, meant largely for a popular audience, but not written in a popular style. It is, however, a book
- [<em>A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World</em> (Gregory Clark)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/01/21/book-review-a-farewell-to-alms-a-brief-economic-history-of-the-world-gregory-clark-2/) - This book is part of the sub-genre that might be titled, if being honest, “Why Are All Today’s Rich People Europeans, Actually or Honorary”? It’s fascinating, though ultimately has, if not holes, lacunae that still need to be filled in before the argument becomes compelling. Clark’s basic thesis is that certain desirable social traits arising
- [<em>Naked Money</em> (Charles Wheelan)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/07/21/book-review-naked-moneycharles-wheelan/) - Naked Money, by Charles Wheelan, has a primary goal and two secondary goals. The primary goal, admirably accomplished, is to simply, but not simplistically, explain monetary policy. One secondary goal, also well accomplished, is to defend fiat money against those who call for going back to a currency backed by gold or some other physical
- [<em>Franco: A Personal and Political Biography</em> (Stanley G. Payne and Jesús Palacios)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/04/04/franco-a-personal-and-political-biography-stanley-g-payne-and-jesus-palacios/) - I am trying something new—analysis of a topic through multiple simultaneous book reviews. The topic is Francisco Franco, and this, Stanley Payne's Franco: A Personal and Political Biography, is one of the books. My purpose is to analyze Franco's career and what lessons it tells us today by contrasting and comparing multiple books on the
- [<em>Franco: Anatomy of a Dictator </em> (Enrique Moradiellos)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/04/04/franco-anatomy-of-a-dictator-enrique-moradiellos/) - I am trying something new—analysis of a topic through multiple simultaneous book reviews. The topic is Francisco Franco, and this, Enrique Moradiellos's Franco: Anatomy of a Dictator, is one of the books. My purpose is to analyze Franco's career and what lessons it tells us today by contrasting and comparing multiple books on the same
- [<em>The Crisis of Multiculturalism in Europe</em> (Rita Chin)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/10/03/book-review-the-crisis-of-multiculturalism-in-europe-rita-chin/) - I oppose the theory and practice of Euro-multiculturalism as both stupid and suicidal. Thus, when I read Pankaj Mishra’s recent review of Rita Chin’s book in The New York Times, it struck me that, in order to be fair, I should read it. All work and no play makes Jack a dull and narrow boy,
- [<em>Letters from an American Farmer</em> (J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2019/03/11/book-review-letters-from-an-american-farmer-crevecoeur/) - This is a strange little Colonial-era book that, nonetheless, tells us something about America today. It was written by a protean Frenchman, J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur. Born French, in Caen, he fought on the Plains of Abraham for Montcalm, and was wounded. He then became a British citizen, married, and settled down to
- [Colloquy: On Whether Identity Politics Defines Today's Democrats](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/10/04/colloquy-on-whether-identity-politics-defines-todays-democrats/) - [This is a colloquy resulting from my earlier review of Mark Lilla's The Once and Future Liberal. Italics are my interlocutor, a partner in a noted opinion research firm with strong Democratic connections.] Charles, I appreciate you calling my attention to this volume. It’s a slim volume and a breezy read, its central argument delivered with
- [<em>Republican Like Me: How I Left the Liberal Bubble and Learned to Love the Right</em> (Ken Stern)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/10/27/book-review-republican-like-me-how-i-left-the-liberal-bubble-and-learned-to-love-the-right-ken-stern/) - Republican Like Me belongs to a certain phenotype, which we can call the “anti-jeremiad.” Whether on the Left or the Right, people of good will sometimes write a book after discovering what they did not earlier know about their political opponents. They make those discoveries by exposing themselves to opposing thoughts and attempting to understand
- [<em>The Shipwrecked Mind</em> (Mark Lilla)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/10/07/book-review-the-shipwrecked-mind-mark-lilla/) - Let us talk of many things, as the Walrus said, but primarily, of neoreaction. What follows is the start of what I hope to make an extended exploration of this line of thought, for which I have much sympathy. I embark on this project for four reasons. First, to amuse myself. Second, in order to
- [<em>Agents of Empire: Knights, Corsairs, Jesuits, and Spies in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean World</em> (Noel Malcolm)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/06/27/book-review-agents-of-empirenoel-malcolm/) - When I think about Albania, which is not often, I usually think about Communist dictator Enver Hoxha and the hundreds of thousands of reinforced concrete pillboxes he scattered around Albania, preparing for the imminent assault of the imperialists. Other than that, if I’m in a historical mood, I think about Skanderbeg, the Sixteenth Century freedom
- [Colloquy:  Of The Possibilities of Comity, The Suppression of Speech, Identity, And Humanity](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/03/04/colloquy-of-the-possibilities-of-comity-the-suppression-of-speech-identity-and-humanity/) - [This colloquy sprang from a Facebook discussion (largely, but not always, an oxymoron) about "fake news," which I alleged may exist, but not in the sense used by the Left, and that in the sense used by the Left, it was merely a proxy for suppression of conservative speech. As always, italics are my interlocutor.]
- [<em>My Father's Business: The Small-Town Values That Built Dollar General into a Billion-Dollar Company</em> (Cal Turner)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/12/08/book-review-my-fathers-business-the-small-town-values-that-built-dollar-general-into-a-billion-dollar-company-cal-turner/) - In 2002, the law firm for which I worked was involved in the Dollar General debacle, helping clean up the mess after the company restated financial statements due to massive accounting fraud. I didn’t know much about Dollar General at the time. But I do remember that a firm partner told me that one of
- [<em>Average Is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation</em> (Tyler Cowen)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/04/26/book-review-average-is-overtyler-cowen/) - Tyler Cowen is a popular economist, known for an influential blog (Marginal Revolution) and a set of books on economics directed at a general audience. In Average Is Over, a book from 2013, Cowen predicts an American future of increased economic (and thus social) division, as new technology enables those most conversant with it to
- [<em>Devil's Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency</em> (Joshua Green)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/07/24/book-review-devils-bargainjoshua-green/) - From when he won the Republican nomination, until Election Night, I told anyone who would listen that Trump would win, and win handily. I am a Trump supporter, and voted for Trump. I am also a big fan of Steve Bannon. Joshua Green is none of the above—yet he has written a compelling, and insightful
- [On Conservative Bubbles and the Supreme Court](https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/11/06/on-conservative-bubbles-and-the-supreme-court/) - It has long been an article of faith on the Right, including for me, that the Left has undemocratically imposed its views on the country for decades by using the Supreme Court as a super-legislature. I had a discussion with a friend of mine this past weekend, an actual centrist (bizarre, I know), who suggested
- [Does Political Correctness Exist Among Conservatives?](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/12/08/colloquy-does-political-correctness-does-not-exist-among-conservatives/) - [This is a reaction requested from me regarding a Washington Post article, by Alex Nowrasteh, titled "The right has its own version of political correctness. It’s just as stifling."] This is not convincing, because it posits a false analogy. (It is also extremely badly written.) The analogy is false because it falsely defines “political correctness.” Conservatives don’t
- [On The Growth In Political Intolerance; Or, The Days of Rage](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/01/18/analysis-on-the-growth-in-political-intolerance-or-the-days-of-rage/) - As we all know, one of the results of the rise of social media is that people are able to communicate their political views more often, in fact continuously, to their friends and acquaintances. We can leave aside that most of this is utterly inane, most of this is virtue-signaling, and little of it is
- [On Rebellion](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/08/07/analysis-on-rebellion/) - [This post duplicates my review of Captain Blood, without the book-specific parts. I am cross-posting it because it fits in two categories, Reviews and Analysis.] American history is full of rebellion—the War of Independence and the Civil War, of course, but also unsuccessful smaller-scale rebellions—Shay’s Rebellion, the Whiskey Rebellion, Nat Turner’s Rebellion, John Brown’s assault
- [<em>Captain Blood</em> (Rafael Sabatini)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/08/02/book-review-captain-bloodrafael-sabatini/) - Captain Blood, to the extent it is mentioned today, is remembered as a 1935 movie that made the career of Errol Flynn. The story was originally this novel, published in 1922. It is the story of an Irish physician who, in the late Seventeenth Century, settles in the southwest of England, in Somerset, after wandering
- [<em>It's Dangerous to Believe: Religious Freedom and Its Enemies</em> (Mary Eberstadt)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/07/28/book-review-its-dangerous-to-believe-religious-freedom-and-its-enemies-mary-eberstadt/) - Mary Eberstadt’s It’s Dangerous To Believe offers very clear analysis and very wrong recommendations. Eberstadt eloquently describes how the elite and powerful in today’s America have subscribed to a new religion, the religion of sexual autonomy without limit, and are increasingly using their immense power to punish heretics, in the form of traditional believers. But,
- [<em>Render Unto Caesar</em> (Charles Chaput)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/10/26/book-review-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 traditionally orthodox prelate (though fewer now, given that Pope Francis is deliberately reducing their numbers). But Chaput has the talent and drive to operate in the public square, to write and
- [<em>Strangers In A Strange Land</em> (Charles Chaput)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/02/27/book-review-strangers-in-a-strange-land-charles-chaput/) - This is a self-help book. I don’t mean it’s to be found in the bookstore under the sign “Self-Help,” where people gather to remake their lives by unlocking the secret of costless auto-regeneration. Rather, this is a self-help book because it, like the famous Kitchener poster, points at the reader and says, “You—there is a
- [<em>Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture</em> (Anthony Esolen)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/03/08/book-review-out-of-the-ashes-rebuilding-american-culture-anthony-esolen/) - Reading this book is like wearing sackcloth and heaping ashes on your head. It certainly brings home to you that things have gone wrong, but unless the act of penance itself calls forth redemption, which sadly today it does not, without further action it only makes you feel bad and gets you dirty. Don’t get
- [<em>Conservative Insurgency</em> (Kurt Schlichter)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/06/10/book-review-conservative-insurgency-kurt-schlichter/) - Conservative Insurgency is that rare animal: an optimistic look at the future of America through a conservative lens. Framed as a fictitious oral history (think Studs Terkel) from 2041, when a form of conservatism has come to dominate essentially all areas of American life, the book largely succeeds in its goal of showing how such
- [<em>By the People: Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission</em> (Charles Murray)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/08/17/book-review-by-the-people-rebuilding-liberty-without-permission-charles-murray/) - I am a criminal. More precisely, I am the kind of criminal that Charles Murray likes. Now, as is well-known, everyone is a criminal nowadays, because of the enormous expansion of deliberately vague and open-ended criminal laws. The average American commits multiple federal felonies every day. But Charles Murray specifically wants every American to commit
- [<em>Lord of the World</em> (Robert Hugh Benson)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/04/14/book-review-lord-of-the-world-robert-hugh-benson/) - Lord Of The World is a highbrow, Catholic version of Left Behind, written by a priest, Msgr. Robert Hugh Benson, in 1907. It is an apocalypse and theologically directed at Catholics, rather than at Protestants of the a premillennial dispensationalism bent. What makes it fascinating is that Pope Francis has repeatedly recommended it, no common
- [<em>Lights Out</em> (Ted Koppel)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/03/06/book-review-lights-out-ted-koppel/) - “Lights Out” is an introductory work to the topic of US electrical grid vulnerability. It covers, in a brief and somewhat padded manner, the frailty of the grid; the confused and inept preparation of the government; and what some normal citizens themselves are doing in preparation for a temporary, but large-scale and possibly lengthy, failure
- [<em>The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Civilization in the Aftermath of a Cataclysm</em> (Lewis Dartnell)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/03/30/book-review-the-knowledge-how-to-rebuild-civilization-in-the-aftermath-of-a-cataclysmlewis-dartnell/) - “The Knowledge” is meant as an assist to the human race. But to properly aid the human race, in a post-apocalypse future, two things are required. One is technical knowledge. The other is an understanding of the human race. Lewis Dartnell here offers technical knowledge, but he limits it to knowledge useful for “peaceful coexistence.”
- [<em>The Final Day</em> (William Fortschen)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/01/04/book-review-the-final-day-william-fortschen/) - I did not have high hopes for this book. But I was wrong—this is an outstanding book. It’s way better than the middle book of the trilogy (One Year After), which was overly talky and seemed like filler. Sure, it’s not as awesome as Fortschen’s first book, One Second After—but it’s hard to capture lightning
- [<em>The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047</em> (Lionel Shriver)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/04/13/book-review-the-mandibles-a-family-2029-2047-lionel-shriver/) - I’m a sucker for apocalyptic fiction. Probably, similar to many doom-and-gloom conservatives, deep down I see myself as bestriding the Apocalypse like a colossus, Bible in my left hand and short-barreled AR-15 in my right. Of course, intellectually I realize that actual apocalypses are very, very bad for everyone involved, so my self-image is buried
- [<em>Indian Country</em> (Kurt Schlichter)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/06/17/book-review-indian-countrykurt-schlichter/) - In the distant past—five months ago—I believed our country could heal its divisions. Sure, we’d always have disagreements, and sure, our new President was always going to be unpopular with a lot of people. But, after all, he had won a democratic election. The Left would regroup, consider why its offerings had been rejected, and
- [<em>One Year After</em> (William Fortschen)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/11/03/book-review-one-year-after-william-fortschen/) - This is just not a very good book. It’s not a dreadful book. Just not very good. True, it’s better than most modern apocalyptic fiction, but that’s a low bar. And true, it has to compete with Fortschen’s previous book, “One Second After,” which was fantastic. But nonetheless, it’s not a very good book. It
- [<em>Dies Irae</em> (William Fortschen)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/01/31/book-review-dies-irae-william-fortschen/) - This is a book written on two levels. It works on one, and not on the other. As political polemic and call to action, it is quite good. As a novel, it is not very good. Fortschen made his name with the excellent “One Second After,” which highlighted the dangers to the country of an
- [<em>People's Republic</em> (Kurt Schlichter)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/09/28/book-review-peoples-republic-kurt-schlichter/) - “People’s Republic” is part satire, part warning and part what I would call “conservative military revenge fantasy.” It’s a well-written, gripping read (like everything Schlichter writes). And the combination is successful, if the goal is to hold the reader’s interest and offer a frisson of conservative thrills. But is it realistic? Does it accurately predict
- [<em>On the Trail of Inca Gold</em> (Hector Lazo)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/01/16/book-review-on-the-trail-of-inca-gold-hector-lazo/) - Every American generation has its young adult fiction, and we can all agree it tends to reflect the society of its time. We associate the young adult fiction of the 1950s with books like Tom Swift and Nancy Drew. Such fiction, including this book, On The Trail of Inca Gold, was highly optimistic, techno-utopian in
- [<em>Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy</em> (Francis Fukuyama)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/08/08/book-review-political-order-and-political-decay-from-the-industrial-revolution-to-the-globalization-of-democracy-francis-fukuyama/) - “Political Order And Political Decay” is the second volume of Francis Fukuyama’s two-book exploration of the political formation of societies. Or, more precisely, how they ultimately form, or fail to form, Fukuyama’s perfect political society, which is an idealized Denmark. And, how even if they do reach that point, they can then fall backward—not as
- [<em>The Arab Mind</em> (Raphael Patai)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/08/03/book-review-the-arab-mind-raphael-patai/) - Looking at other reviews of “The Arab Mind,” it appears readers divide into two camps. The first group, for whom ideology matters more than reality, hate this book. The second group, largely military, for whom their lives depend on an accurate perception of reality, love this book. This divergence alone suggests the book is worth
- [<em>Charlemagne</em> (Johannes Fried)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/01/02/book-review-charlemagne-fried/) - “Charlemagne” is a rare sort of work—a satisfying biography about a historical figure about whom very little is directly known. The usual result from biography in such cases, as opposed to histories where a mostly hidden person figures merely in the greater context of his times, is the writing of fiction. Authors seem unable to
- [<em>Empire of Cotton: A Global History</em> (Sven Beckert)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/08/04/book-review-empire-of-cotton-a-global-history-sven-beckert/) - “Empire Of Cotton” is really two books. First, it’s an exhaustive exposition of the history of cotton as a textile raw material. That’s about 80% of the book, and by exhaustive I mean very, very exhaustive. Second, and unfortunately dominating, it’s a puerile, scattered, self-contradictory and confused attack on the Great Boogeyman “Capitalism,” along with
- [<em>The Coming of the Third Reich</em> (Richard Evans)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/03/01/book-review-the-coming-of-the-third-reich-richard-evans/) - For the past few months, we have been subjected to a tedious, hysterical stream of comparisons of Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. As a reader of this book, The Coming of the Third Reich, will quickly figure out, such comparisons are both vicious and ignorant. One thing is clear to the reader of this book,
- [<em>The English and Their History</em> (Robert Tombs)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/09/14/book-review-the-english-and-their-history-robert-tombs/) - This book is a massive history of the English, written by an English expert on France, Robert Tombs. Somehow, against the odds, it manages to be sprightly, interesting, and, most of all, generally upbeat about the past, present, and future of England. Tombs rejects the idea of “Whig history,” not because English progress does not
- [<em>Europe Since 1989: A History</em> (Philipp Ther)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/11/02/book-review-europe-since-1989-a-history-philipp-ther/) - This book’s title is a lie, as is most of what little history it contains. I read Europe Since 1989: A History to fill in the gaps from Tony Judt’s Postwar, which ends its history around 2000. Philipp Ther’s book was published in 2014, with an English translation in 2016, and it specifically name-checks Judt’s
- [<em>The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker</em> (Katherine J. Cramer)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/11/15/book-review-the-politics-of-resentment-rural-consciousness-in-wisconsin-and-the-rise-of-scott-walkerkatherine-j-cramer/) - In the past few years, a variety of liberal academics have adopted a Gorillas in the Mist sensibility when trying to understand conservatives. Like Dian Fossey, they creep, wearing a ghillie suit, through thick and steamy jungles alien to them, hoping to grasp what it is that makes these creatures tick. Sometimes they become fond
- [<em>Naked Economics</em> (Charles Wheelan)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/11/23/book-review-naked-moneycharles-wheelan-2/) - Sometimes I think it is a fool’s errand to study economics and hope for enlightenment. Much economics knowledge is too simple for that goal—for example, the relationship of supply and demand to prices. Such facts are easy to grasp through direct personal experience. But beyond that, actual enlightenment never comes, because, as everybody knows, economics
- [<em>The Punic Wars</em> (Adrian Goldsworthy)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/11/28/book-review-the-punic-warsadrian-goldsworthy/) - The study of history is dead. That may seem an odd assertion, given that I am reviewing a very good work of history, Adrian Goldsworthy’s The Punic Wars. But books like this are read by a tiny audience—hard to say how big, but I would be shocked if more than ten thousand people had read
- [<em>The Third Reich in Power</em> (Richard J. Evans)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/10/14/book-review-the-third-reich-in-power-richard-j-evans/) - This is the second of three volumes in Richard Evans’s massive history of the Third Reich. I noted in my review of the first volume of this trilogy, The Coming of the Third Reich, that Evans does not offer revisionist history, and that “the same bad people do the same bad things that anyone who
- [<em>Augustus: First Emperor of Rome</em> (Adrian Goldsworthy)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/10/25/book-review-augustus-first-emperor-of-rome-adrian-goldsworthy/) - This review will combine something very old with something very new. The very old, of course, is the title character, the Emperor Augustus, and his times. The very new is a continuation of my thoughts on reaction as a modern political movement. You will see how these things fit together, and in fact are much
- [<em>The Strange Death of Europe</em> (Douglas Murray)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/09/08/book-review-the-strange-death-of-europe-douglas-murray/) - Mass immigration to Europe is one of those topics about which there is little mainstream discussion, both in the United States and even more so (paradoxically) in Europe. What discussion does happen is purely facile, on the “pro” side, or often lacking nuance, on the “anti” side. Douglas Murray’s book, The Strange Death of Europe,
- [<em>World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech</em> (Franklin Foer)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/09/16/book-review-world-without-mind-the-existential-threat-of-big-techfranklin-foer/) - Franklin Foer’s World Without Mind is an excellent book. It identifies important problems, ties the problems to their historical precedents, and suggests some reasonable solutions. The book is not complete, or perfect, but in the emerging literature of why and how to curb the power of giant technology companies, this book is a useful introduction,
- [<em>At the Edge of the World: The Heroic Century of the French Foreign Legion</em> (Jean-Vincent Blanchard)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/08/01/book-review-at-the-edge-of-the-world-the-heroic-century-of-the-french-foreign-legion-jean-vincent-blanchard/) - Everyone knows about the French Foreign Legion. Mostly, though, our knowledge ranges from impressionistic to false, derived largely from movies and with an overlay of the kneejerk odium that attends colonialism. At The Edge of the World: The Heroic Century of the French Foreign Legion corrects that lack of knowledge—it gives an excellent overview, both
- [<em>Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States</em> (James C. Scott)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/08/09/book-review-against-the-grain-a-deep-history-of-the-earliest-statesjames-c-scott/) - This outstanding book, by the anarchist-tending academic James C. Scott, might be (but isn’t) subtitled “Barbarians Are Happier, Fatter and Better Looking.” The author does not believe the myth of the noble savage—but he thinks the savage is, on average, a lot better off than the peasant. Scott’s project is to remold our view of
- [<em>Born to Run</em> (Bruce Springsteen)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/07/26/book-review-born-to-runbruce-springsteen/) - I’ve always liked Bruce Springsteen, but never knew much about him beyond what could be read in the news. His autobiography, Born to Run, tells everything a reasonable reader could want. It’s not a tell-all, certainly—while Springsteen honestly relates his life, including quite a bit of self-criticism, he says explicitly he has not told the
- [<em>Flash of Genius</em> (John Seabrook)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/07/31/book-review-flash-of-geniusjohn-seabrook/) - This title story of this book tells of Bob Kearns, tinkering inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper, whose patented invention was stolen by Ford and other big automakers. The story was originally a 1993 New Yorker article, but was republished in this book as a tie-in to the 2008 Greg Kinnear movie of the same
- [<em>The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counterrevolution: 1980-1989</em> (Steven Hayward)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/05/03/book-review-the-age-of-reagan-the-conservative-counterrevolution-1980-1989-steven-hayward/) - This is the second volume of historian Steven Hayward’s voluminous biography of Ronald Reagan. As with any modern, widely documented life, “voluminous” does not mean “comprehensive”—there is no such thing, and Reagan in particular is the type of man who, when writing about, the biographer must select his facts and weave them into a coherent
- [<em>A History of Islamic Societies</em> (Ira Lapidus)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/05/05/book-review-a-history-of-islamic-societies-ira-lapidus/) - This is a famous book. Together with Marshall Hodgson’s three-volume The Venture of Islam, it is the touchstone of modern long-form histories of the Islamic world. A History of Islamic Societies, as its title implies, covers both history and theology. Given that I like history, and that I have a particular interest in comparative theology
- [<em>The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues, and the Coming Dark Age</em> (James Kirchick)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/04/11/book-review-the-end-of-europe-dictators-demagogues-and-the-coming-dark-age-james-kirchick/) - This is a silly and shallow book. But it is not worthless, because it serves to exemplify and clarify modern political fracture lines. In the West, the major political split today is between those who view the modern liberal project of maximum individual freedom and maximum democracy (as long as the voters make the correct
- [<em>The Abolition of Britain</em> (Peter Hitchens)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/04/15/book-review-the-abolition-of-britain-peter-hitchens/) - I did not like this book as much as I expected. In part that’s because, as an American, a narrative of British decline resonates with me less deeply, simply because much of the culture, politics and daily life of Britain is not familiar to me. In part it’s because the book is written in a
- [<em>Age of Anger: A History of the Present</em> (Pankaj Mishra)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/04/24/book-review-age-of-anger-a-history-of-the-present-pankaj-mishra/) - Twenty years ago, that liberal Baal, philosopher Martha Nussbaum, assigned me to read The Golden Bowl, by Henry James. She said it was the best book she had ever read. Maybe it was, but it was unreadable, and I am just as smart as Nussbaum. The problem with The Golden Bowl is that you know
- [<em>How We Got To Now</em> (Steven Johnson)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/04/29/book-review-how-we-got-to-now-steven-johnson/) - How We Got To Now is competent enough, but it feels threadbare. It feels like a narrative designed to punctuate a picture show that is missing its pictures. It probably feels that way because it is that way—it was written to accompany a PBS television series (which is flacked on the cover of the book),
- [<em>How An Economy Grows And Why It Crashes</em> (Peter Schiff)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/03/03/book-review-how-an-economy-grows-and-why-it-crashes-peter-schiff/) - For the past few years, I’ve started thinking of basic economics through the prism of a thought experiment. This involves starting all analysis by considering twenty people sitting around on the savanna, each with literally nothing except his or her ability to work. This frame is highly instructive, because it allows the thinker to easily
- [<em>Conserving America?</em> (Patrick Deneen)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/03/05/book-review-conserving-america-patrick-deneen/) - This book, a book of essays, is effectively a companion to Ryszard Legutko’s The Demon In Democracy. The core theme of both books is that “liberal democracy” is inherently defective; the books explore why and what that implies. Whereas Legutko’s project is to compare liberal democracy to Communism, to explain their similarities and what that
- [<em>The Christians As The Romans Saw Them</em> (Robert Louis Wilken)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/03/10/book-review-the-christians-as-the-romans-saw-them-robert-louis-wilken/) - We tend to think of Christianity’s global spread as somehow predestined. A little thought, of course, shows this to be far from the truth. In fact, many cultures have strongly resisted the message of the Gospel—most dramatically with violence and the creation of martyrs, but sometimes more successfully with intellectual arguments against the truth of
- [<em>Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich</em> (Norman Ohler)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/03/12/book-review-blitzed-drugs-in-the-third-reich-norman-ohler/) - This book failed in the two goals I set for it, either of which I would have accepted. It did not teach me anything new about drugs, and it did not teach me anything new about Nazis. Sad! Blitzed is a serviceable summary of known facts about both drugs and Nazis, combined with some dubious
- [<em>Memoirs of a Superfluous Man</em> (Albert Jay Nock)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/03/13/book-review-memoirs-of-a-superfluous-man-albert-jay-nock/) - Many years ago, I belonged to a debating society, which, among other activities, sponsored formal dinners at which there was much drinking and then singing, from an official songbook of thoroughly not-politically correct songs. Among them was one, sung to the tune of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, titled God Rot Ye Libertarians. It went,
- [<em>Destined to Reign: The Secret to Effortless Success, Wholeness and Victorious Living</em> (Joseph Prince)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/03/23/book-review-destined-to-reign-the-secret-to-effortless-success-wholeness-and-victorious-living-joseph-prince/) - This is not the sort of book I normally read. It is spiritual fluff from a Singaporean megachurch “grace preacher,” Joseph Prince. But a friend of mine sent me a copy and suggested I read it, since he obtained a lot of spiritual benefit from it. I warned him that I would likely abuse the
- [Colloquy: On Global Warming](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/02/05/colloquy-on-global-warming-2/) - [This is a back-and-forth to a response to that portion of my review of Milk which suggested five specific reasons why any public policy advocacy position could be taken, only one of which was rational analysis, and indicated that the demand for action to combat anthropogenic global warming was distorted by those reasons, but without those
- [<em>The Great Heresies</em> (Hilaire Belloc)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/02/07/book-review-the-great-heresies-hilaire-belloc/) - For no reason that is fully clear to me, I have always been fascinated by heresies. It matters to me what the difference between a Monothelite and a Monophysite is. Hence, I thought this book (from 1938, by the famous Catholic writer Hilaire Belloc) would survey various heresies and would explain, as its title says,
- [Colloquy:  On Christian Duty As Related To President Trump's Executive Order On Immigration](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/02/08/colloquy-on-christian-duty-as-related-to-president-trumps-executive-order/) - [This is designed to be a colloquy regarding the recent executive order by President Trump, relying on authority granted by Congress to temporarily bar most entry into the US by individuals from seven named, predominantly Muslim, countries. As always, responses of interlocutors are in italics, color-coded to differentiate different interlocutors.] The topic here is (as
- [<em>The Almost Nearly Perfect People</em> (Michael Booth)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/02/09/book-review-the-almost-nearly-perfect-people-michael-booth/) - Published in 2014, this book has an eerie vibe, redolent of a past that seems distant but really was just yesterday. Intertwined with gentle criticisms of Nordic foibles is an iron self-confidence that “we,” a group constantly referred to but never defined, desire above all things “modernism”: absolute equality of result and a rejection of
- [<em>The Age of Reagan: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order: 1964-1980</em> (Steven Hayward)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/02/15/book-review-the-age-of-reagan-the-fall-of-the-old-liberal-order-1964-1980-steven-hayward/) - I read The Age of Reagan, the first volume of a massive two-volume biography, because I wanted to learn more about Ronald Reagan. I knew something about Reagan’s presidency, having been an adult for part of it, and that Reagan had been Governor of California, a popular speaker and commentator, head of the Screen Actors
- [<em>Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World</em> (Justin Marozzi)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/02/24/book-review-tamerlane-sword-of-islam-conqueror-of-the-world-justin-marozzi/) - I, and many others, have been exhausted in recent months by the nonstop political noise machine. So I pulled this book off the shelf, figuring that a biography of the 14th Century warlord Tamerlane would be pretty much non-political. Maybe not as non-political as a coffee table book about, say, flowers, but close, and to
- [<em>Intellectual Curiosity and the Scientific Revolution</em> (Toby Huff)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/01/05/book-review-intellectual-curiosity-and-the-scientific-revolution-toby-huff/) - Toby Huff’s Intellectual Curiosity and the Scientific Revolution is in many ways a companion book to his earlier The Rise of Early Modern Science. That book was a comparative study of the approach to science in the major world cultures, discussing in great detail and breadth why it was that modern science only arose in
- [<em>The Attention Merchants</em> (Tim Wu)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/01/09/book-review-the-attention-merchants-tim-wu/) - Tim Wu’s The Attention Merchants is part history and part social analysis. The history related in The Attention Merchants tells us something we all basically know—that economic forces simultaneously drive businesses to offer us “free” entertainment, while at the same time making our attention to that entertainment a product to be sold to advertisers. Hence
- [<em>Conquests and Cultures</em> (Thomas Sowell)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/01/12/book-review-conquests-and-cultures-thomas-sowell/) - Last month, in December 2016, maybe as a Christmas gift to himself, Thomas Sowell announced that he was retiring. Technically, he announced that he was retiring from writing a syndicated column, but at age 86, it seems likely that he does not intend to write any new books, either. This is unfortunate, but his work
- [<em>Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left</em> (Roger Scruton)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/01/17/book-review-fools-frauds-and-firebrands-thinkers-of-the-new-left-roger-scruton/) - It is easy enough to know what the Right thinks, and why. Half a dozen recent books can easily be found explaining clearly libertarianism; or social conservatism; or “reform conservatism.” But no such thing exists for the Left. Yes, there are many books on what political ends the Left desires. I think those desires are
- [<em>C. S. Lewis on Politics and the Natural Law</em> (Justin Buckley Dyer and Micah J. Watson)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/12/09/book-review-c-s-lewis-on-politics-and-the-natural-law/) - “C.S. Lewis on Politics and the Natural Law” collects in one short book the thoughts of Lewis on human collective action, i.e., politics. The thesis of the authors, Justin Dyer and Micah Watson, is that Lewis believed Christianity implied certain broad conclusions about how politics should be ordered. Moreover, these conclusions are essential to understand
- [<em>What Washington Gets Wrong</em> (Jennifer Bachner and Benjamin Ginsberg)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/12/13/book-review-what-washington-gets-wrongbachner-ginsberg/) - “What Washington Gets Wrong” shows, by polling statistics, what we all know already. Namely, that those who run the government, from Capitol City—sorry, from Washington—not only think differently from Americans as whole, but also have different policy priorities and have deep contempt for most Americans. This isn’t a surprise, because this is the nature of
- [<em>Is Administrative Law Unlawful?</em> (Philip Hamburger)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/12/28/hello-world/) - Administrative law—the delegation by the legislature of legislative and judicial power to the executive—is the backdrop of every American life, but very few people realize this. Fewer still realize that this backdrop is less like a fine wallcovering, an aesthetically pleasing but minor element, and more like a sticky web that, not seen until it’s
- [<em>Deep Survival</em> (Laurence Gonzales)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/11/15/book-review-deep-survival-laurence-gonzales/) - I read Laurence Gonzales’ “Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, And Why” as a counterpoint to Amanda Ripley’s “The Unthinkable.” Both are survivor books, very different in their approach, but with significant conclusions in common. Gonzales focuses more on accidents: unexpected twists that challenge people in stressful situations they chose to put themselves in, primarily
- [<em>The High House</em> (James Stoddard)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/11/22/book-review-the-high-house-james-stoddard/) - “The High House” is a startlingly original book. It is, in some ways, young adult fantasy. In other ways, it is fully adult allegory. Naturally, such double effect, whether of allegory or some other adult theme, is the hallmark of all great fiction putatively directed at the young, from the “Chronicles of Narnia” to “Alice
- [<i>Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America</i> (David Hackett Fischer)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/11/29/book-review-126-albions-seed-david-hackett-fischer/) - “Albion’s Seed” is a classic work of ethnography. It is refreshing to read because a book like it could not be written today (it was published in 1989). It’s not that the book has any political angle. Rather, it’s that it totally fails to acknowledge today’s left-liberal preoccupations, in particular the fictive primacy of “identity”
- [<em>The Screwtape Letters</em> (C.S. Lewis)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/10/02/book-review-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 others vastly more qualified, reviewing “The Screwtape Letters” seems like reviewing “Hamlet”—an activity that is likely to offer nothing new, and also to reflect poorly on the reviewer. Every page of
- [<em>A Torch Kept Lit</em> (William F. Buckley)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/10/08/book-review-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 Trumpian trials of High Conservatism, whose leading lights must feel much like the characters in Toy Story 3, holding hands as they are fed into a fiery furnace. (The Toy Story
- [<em>Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline</em> (Montesquieu)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/10/11/book-review-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 in length, Montesquieu sketches characteristics of Roman society from its beginnings through its (Byzantine) end. His goal is to find the main elements of Rome’s growth and decline and the lessons
- [<em>Wiring Simplified: Based on the 2014 National Electrical Code</em> (H.P. Richter <em>et al.</em>)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/10/16/book-review-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 available for free. But there is so much chaff that often it is hard to find accurate answers. When and if you do find accurate answers, they are surrounded by a
- [<em>The Dragons of Expectation</em> (Robert Conquest)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/10/18/book-review-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 the Sovietologist Robert Conquest, made toward the end of his life. It ranges from the use of words, to the Cold War, to art and the humanities, all united by the
- [<em>The Romanovs</em> (Simon Sebag Montefiore)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/10/20/book-review-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, then Ivan the Terrible (not a Romanov), Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, and then a mass slaughter by the Bolsheviks. Along the way there was lots of unpleasantness; Napoleon was
- [<em>Gentlemen's Blood</em> (Barbara Holland)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/10/28/book-review-gentlemens-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 and Britain, with side tours into Germany, France and Russia, touching on famous duelists like Pushkin (who ended up the worse for wear as a result). The book is interesting for
- [<em>Glock: The Rise of America's Gun</em> (Paul Barrett)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/09/21/book-review-glock-the-rise-of-americas-gun-paul-barrett/) - “Glock” is that rarest of beasts—a mainstream writing in which the author makes zero errors about guns, and takes almost no political positions with respect to guns. This is the most neutral book on the topic I have ever seen, which is surprising given that the author, Paul Barrett, worked and works for the violently
- [<em>Capital without Borders: Wealth Managers and the One Percent</em> (Brooke Harrington)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/09/11/book-review-capital-without-borders-wealth-managers-and-the-one-percent-brooke-harrington/) - I read “Capital Without Borders,” a book on wealth management, because I wanted a “how-to” book. How could I, were I to become adequately rich, maximize my wealth by using methods available only to the knowledgeable and connected? Unfortunately for my purpose, “Capital Without Borders” doesn’t delve deeply enough into the precise mechanics of wealth
- [<em>Against Democracy</em> (Jason Brennan)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/09/20/book-review-against-democracy-jason-brennan/) - Jason Brennan is The Man Who Was Born Yesterday. His book is incisive, insightful, interesting, funny, and well-informed. It delivers a sound and compelling case that democracy is fatally flawed. But everything he says in “Against Democracy” lacks depth, because he thinks that history began roughly twenty-four hours ago. So, while his analysis of democracy
- [<em>Welder's Handbook</em> (Richard Finch)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/09/25/book-review-welders-handbook-richard-finch/) - “Welder’s Handbook” is a good introductory text to basic welding. Yes, it does not have an endless amount of detail on most welding processes. And yes, in order to actually weld, you’ll have to actually weld. But reading this book first, and then getting basic instruction from someone who knows how to perform the type
- [<em>Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community</em> (Robert Putnam)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/08/02/book-review-bowling-alone-the-collapse-and-revival-of-american-community-robert-putnam/) - This is a famous book, but “Bowling Alone” was not what I expected. What I expected was social commentary. What I got was social science, proving with reams of statistics what is now a commonplace, that social capital in America has eroded massively over the past several decades. Of course, that it’s a commonplace is
- [<em>The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge</em> (Matt Ridley)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/08/10/book-review-the-evolution-of-everything-how-new-ideas-emerge-matt-ridley/) - “The Evolution Of Everything” is a hard book to review, because it has no substance. Reviewing it is like reviewing a Cliff’s Notes or “For Dummies” book. It is a wholly derivative book, startlingly simplistic and frequently either disingenuous or stupid. What truth the book offers, is obvious, and what truth the book claims is
- [<em>Republics Ancient & Modern, Vol. 1: The Ancien Régime in Classical Greece</em> (Paul Rahe)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/08/12/book-review-republics-ancient-modern-vol-1-the-ancien-regime-in-classical-greece-paul-rahe/) - In a sense, this is an introductory work. Not a work for beginners, but a work introducing the reader to Rahe’s broader conception of modern political economy, as it relates to the Classical world. I haven’t yet read the two subsequent volumes, which continue the plan outlined in this book, of contrasting and comparing the
- [<em>Russell Kirk: American Conservative</em> (Bradley Birzer)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/08/16/book-review-russell-kirk-american-conservative-bradley-birzer/) - Once upon a time, it seemed that Russell Kirk might, as he so devoutly wished, “redeem the time.” For two brief, shining moments, in the late 1950s and the early 1980s, Kirk’s efforts must have seemed to him like they might bear permanent fruit. But the moments passed, and it is clear now (in the
- [<em>Paper</em> (Mark Kurlansky)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/08/22/book-review-paper-mark-kurlansky/) - “Paper” is a book of interesting anecdotes, loosely linked by its theme. At the end of the book, the reader may say “what’s the point?” But, really, there is no point. To seek one is a mistake. Rather, all of Kurlansky’s books, which include “Salt,” and “Cod,” follow a satisfying formula. They are travelogues through
- [<em>Wealth, Poverty and Politics (2nd Edition)</em> (Thomas Sowell)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/08/28/book-review-wealth-poverty-and-politics-2nd-edition-thomas-sowell/) - Thomas Sowell’s latest book, published in 2015 and now revised a year later, is the usual tour-de-force. It’s not so much that there’s anything startlingly new (although there are some interesting new statistics and several new lines of thought), but that Sowell has a unique ability to clearly and concisely bring together an analysis. In
- [<em>When in the Course of Human Events: Arguing the Case for Southern Secession</em> (Charles Adams)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/07/01/book-review-when-in-the-course-of-human-events-arguing-the-case-for-southern-secession-charles-adams/) - This book has a not-new thesis, beloved by Marxists and Charles Beard: that economic reasons were the real driver behind the Civil War. Actually, Charles Adams tells us that only one economic reason was the sole driver—increased tariffs dictated by the North. As with all ideologically driven analysis, this ignores that all complex happenings have
- [<em>1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed</em> (Eric Cline)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/07/04/book-review-1177-b-c-the-year-civilization-collapsed-eric-cline/) - “1177 B.C.” is a worthwhile book, but it fails to deliver on its promises. It is an uncomfortable blend of academic treatise and popular history, and it suffers from this split personality. And it suffers from aiming high, promising to explain how Mediterranean Bronze Age societies collapsed together in short order and how that relates
- [<em>Tribe</em> (Sebastian Junger)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/07/04/book-review-tribe-sebastian-junger/) - Sebastian Junger’s “Tribe” is in some ways an original book, and in some ways not. It’s original in that it applies the truism that modern Western life is alienating specifically to the mental issues afflicting veterans. It’s not original in that, although he seems not to know it, his book is an entry in a
- [<em>The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling</em> (David Gilmour)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/07/07/book-review-the-long-recessional-the-imperial-life-of-rudyard-kipling-david-gilmour/) - Rudyard Kipling, when remembered today, is usually snidely dismissed as a jingoistic Victorian, or as the writer of certain children’s books. “The Long Recessional” provides the modern reader with a concise biography of the multi-faceted Kipling, showing him as, if not a man for all seasons, surely a man for his time. David Gilmour is
- [<em>Popular Economics</em> (John Tamny)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/07/15/book-review-popular-economics-john-tamny/) - “Popular Economics” is a well-written, glib primer. In some ways, it’s a dumbed-down version of Henry Hazlitt’s “Economics In One Lesson,” or a severely dumbed-down version of Thomas Sowell’s “Basic Economics.” Its goal is to instruct those with little economics knowledge that John Tamny has all the answers. Actually, it’s to instruct them that John
- [<em>Trials of the Earth</em> (Mary Hamilton)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/07/20/book-review-trials-of-the-earth-mary-hamilton/) - St. Paul says in Second Thessalonians (or as Donald Trump would have it, “Two Thessalonians”), “if any would not work, neither should he eat.” This seems old-fashioned, even unfair to some. But not so long ago, what St. Paul said was literally true for most Americans, and merely an accepted fact of life, not an
- [<em>Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected</em> (Rory Miller)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/07/21/book-review-facing-violence-preparing-for-the-unexpected-rory-miller/) - While “Facing Violence” is an interesting book, it seems to me its practical usefulness is limited. It will probably help, to some extent, in “Preparing For the Unexpected.” But the reader shouldn’t get overconfident as a result. It’s like being an armchair general—there is nothing inherently wrong with analyzing things from the comfort of your
- [<em>The Three-Body Problem</em> (Cixin Liu)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/06/06/book-review-the-three-body-problem/) - “The Three-Body Problem” is a science fiction novel, of the “hard” subgenre, that has received a great deal of attention. Much of that attention is due to a political tussle among science fiction fans, where some believe that various unworthy writings have been exalted by the establishment merely to make a political point about supposed
- [<em>Liberal Fascism</em> (Jonah Goldberg)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/06/18/book-review-liberal-fascism-jonah-goldberg/) - “Liberal Fascism” is really a history book, not the book of political analysis I expected it to be. I didn’t love this book (written in 2007—apparently a 2009 version is updated to include talk about Obama), even though it’s famous among conservatives. I’m not sure why I didn’t love this book. Maybe it’s because despite
- [<em>A Year In Provence</em> (Peter Mayle)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/06/19/book-review-a-year-in-provence-peter-mayle/) - “A Year In Provence” is the meringue of books. It is cloyingly sweet, airily light, and totally insubstantial. I have no idea if it is “accurate,” with respect to the facts of the Provence of today, or of 25 years ago. It might be total fiction, for all I know. That doesn’t make it bad,
- [<em>Keeping Chickens with Ashley English</em> (Ashley English)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/06/20/book-review-keeping-chickens-with-ashley-english-ashley-english/) - I read this book because my wife and I have decided to keep chickens. My wife is driving the project, but I figured I should participate fully. I started with this book. I would have been better off starting with the Internet. Reading this book is like reading a Williams-Sonoma catalog. At the end, you
- [<em>The Small-Scale Poultry Flock</em> (Harvey Ussery)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/06/28/book-review-the-small-scale-poultry-flock-harvey-ussery/) - This may be the best “how to” book I have ever read, at least for manual work. Yes, I haven’t even started raising chickens (yet), so my base of knowledge for that praise is small. And yes, the book I read before this was the not-good “Keeping Chickens With Ashley English,” so after that, anything
- [<em>Hypatia of Alexandria</em> (Maria Dzielska)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/06/30/book-review-hypatia-of-alexandria-maria-dzielska/) - In today’s popular culture, Hypatia, the woman philosopher/mathematician of the Fifth Century A.D., is a caricature with little or no grounding in reality. For example, in the 2009 film “Agora,” she is portrayed as the youthful originator of heliocentrism, killed by ignorant Christians opposed to science, who for good measure burn down the famous Library
- [<em>The Apple Grower: A Guide for the Organic Orchardist</em> (Michael Phillips)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/06/30/book-review-the-apple-grower-a-guide-for-the-organic-orchardist-michael-phillips/) - “The Apple Grower” is an excellent book, but not one for the casual apple grower. That doesn’t mean that another, simpler book would be better for the casual apple grower. Rather, it appears to me (very much a non-expert) that apple growing isn’t possible to do casually, so “casual apple grower” is a very small
- [<em>Laurus</em> (Eugene Vodolazkin)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/04/14/book-review-laurus-eugene-vodolazkin/) - I read “Laurus” because Rod Dreher told me to, on his blog at least, and I do everything Rod Dreher says. I was not disappointed. And if you’d like detailed analysis of the book through a much more sophisticated lens than mine, you should search his blog for his many posts on this book. “Laurus”
- [<em>The Turmoil</em> (Booth Tarkington)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/04/26/book-review-the-turmoil-booth-tarkington/) - “The Turmoil” is a book little read nowadays, and would probably be a book never read except for Orson Welles. Its author, Booth Tarkington, was a famous Indiana writer of the early 20th Century. Nowadays, when literary life is dominated by coastal authors, or those who want to move to the coasts, and the ecosystem
- [<em>SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome</em> (Mary Beard)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/04/28/book-review-spqr-a-history-of-ancient-rome-mary-beard/) - “SPQR” is proof that it’s possible to write something interesting where thousands of books have gone before. The author, Mary Beard, an English classicist, has managed to write a compelling book covering most of Roman history, with enough detail to give the reader, whether new to Roman history or already well-versed, a complete picture, and
- [<em>The Richest Man Who Ever Lived</em> (Greg Steinmetz)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/03/15/book-review-the-richest-man-who-ever-lived-greg-steinmetz/) - The Richest Man Who Ever Lived is pop history, designed to appeal to modern readers by putting a modern gloss on a medieval man. As to its central figure, the German banker Jacob Fugger, it may get the core of his story right. Or it may not, because in much of its ancillary history, it
- [<em>Proof: The Science of Booze</em> (Adam Rogers)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/03/21/book-review-proof-the-science-of-booze-adam-rogers/) - “Proof” is an outstanding book. Neither too short nor too long for its topic, it crisply discusses various elements of the production of (ingestible) alcohol. The author, Adam Rogers, an editor at Wired magazine, writes in a compelling, engaging fashion, including enough science to be interesting and not superficial, without putting in so much science
- [<em>Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan</em> (Hugh Thomas)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/03/24/book-review-rivers-of-gold-the-rise-of-the-spanish-empire-from-columbus-to-magellan-hugh-thomas/) - “Rivers Of Gold” is not for the faint of heart. If you are looking for a compact treatment of the early Spanish empire in the New World, this isn’t it. If you are looking for a book that bewails the fate of the indigenous inhabitants of the New World at the hands of the evil
- [<em>The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution</em> (Francis Fukuyama)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/03/31/book-review-the-origins-of-political-order-from-prehuman-times-to-the-french-revolution-francis-fukuyama/) - Like Daniel Burnham, Francis Fukuyama makes no small plans. “The Origins of Political Order” aspires to be nothing less than an all-encompassing explanation of how human beings created political order. This book carries Fukuyama’s analysis up to the French Revolution; a second volume carries the story to the modern day. This volume is mostly taken
- [<em>Curzon: Imperial Statesman</em> (David Gilmour)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/02/01/book-review-curzon-imperial-statesman-david-gilmour/) - “Curzon” is one of those typically British biographies of dead political figures. Such biographies tend to go into great detail not just about the protagonist, but about long-forgotten political issues fought among long-forgotten men. If you are interested in the protagonist, or the period, this can be excellent, as long as the writing is good,
- [<em>The Greatship</em> (Robert Reed)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/02/06/book-review-the-greatship-robert-reed/) - Since I was a small child, I have read science fiction, and lots of it. For decades, I’ve read all types, from H.G. Wells through 1930s pulp through 1950s “golden age” through 1970s trippy through modern (the latter in all its broad range from “hard” to “socially conscious”, i.e., culturally leftist stories lacking the “science”
- [<em>Get Your House Right</em> (Marianne Cusato)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/02/06/book-review-get-your-house-right-marianne-cusato/) - How can you go wrong with an architecture book where the forward is written by Prince Charles? Yes, the Prince is a political imbecile. But he is an excellent architectural expert and critic, and one of the first to push back against the fetid tide of architectural Modernism. (You can tell that he’s good on
- [<em>The Trojan War: A New History</em> (Barry Strauss)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/02/07/book-review-the-trojan-war-a-new-history-barry-strauss/) - “The Trojan War” is an interesting contrast to some of Barry Strauss’s other works. As always, Strauss is extremely readable and offers fresh insight and analysis. In this book, however, he has to fill in historical gaps to a much greater degree. We know a lot more about Salamis, Caesar and Spartacus, some of the
- [<em>The End is Nigh</em> (Matthew Mather ed.)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/02/13/book-review-the-end-is-nigh-matthew-mather-ed/) - This is a neat little set of apocalypse stories. While I haven’t read the two subsequent books, my understanding is that most of these stories are continued in the later books, but they are also stand-alone stories, about the time and moments right before the end (or effective end) of the world. Some are clever,
- [<em>Suicide of the West</em> (James Burnham)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/02/15/book-review-suicide-of-the-west-james-burnham/) - “Suicide of the West,” subtitled “An Essay on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism,” is a classic work of political science, now fifty years old. It is much referred to by conservatives but little read by conservatives. It is NOT about how liberalism is the cause of the suicide of the West. In fact, liberals
- [<em>Traditional Construction Patterns</em> (Stephen Mouzon)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/02/16/book-review-traditional-construction-patterns-stephen-mouzon/) - Although the author, Stephen Mouzon, would doubtless not be happy to hear it, “Traditional Construction Patterns” is best viewed as supplement/complement to Marianne Cusato’s “Get Your House Right.” But I do recommend the book, if only because it is one of the few books on the market (though it is quite expensive) that covers this
- [<em>The Geography of Genius</em> (Eric Weiner)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/02/19/book-review-the-geography-of-genius-eric-weiner/) - “The Geography of Genius” is a bit of a puzzle. The author’s stated goal is “a search for the world’s most creative places.” A search is certainly what it is; as others have pointed out, much of the book is a travelogue, and a pretty interesting one. At the same time, the author aspires to
- [<em>The Bloody White Baron</em> (James Palmer)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/02/22/book-review-the-bloody-white-baron-james-palmer/) - “The Bloody White Baron” is one of those fascinating short books about a nasty little corner of the world during a nasty time. The nasty little corner of the world is Mongolia; the nasty time is the Russian Civil War. The eponymous Baron is Roman Nikolai Maximilian von Ungern-Sternberg, of Estonian/German extraction, who was called
- [<em>Team of Rivals</em> (Doris Kearns Goodwin)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/02/23/book-review-team-of-rivals-doris-kearns-goodwin/) - “Team Of Rivals” is, of course, an excellent biography of Abraham Lincoln. It is readable, compelling, and original. I have no new praises to add. So, instead, I’m writing this review to compare the philosophy and politics of the Civil War era to our philosophy and politics today, on the topic of abortion. The comparison
- [<em>Good Profit</em> (Charles Koch)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/01/24/book-review-good-profit-charles-koch/) - Holy crap, this is a bad book. I like the Koch brothers. I agree with them politically, both philosophically and in their desire to actually punch back at liberals and change the status quo, rather than simply feeding money into the rathole of establishment politicians and tasseled-loafer conservative consultants. Their demonization by the Left is
- [<em>Appetite For America</em> (Stephen Fried)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/01/25/book-review-appetite-for-america-stephen-fried/) - “Appetite For America” is that rare book that combines the best of a history book and a business book. It’s the story of Fred Harvey, a sickly but iron-willed Englishman who built the first retail empire in America, and the story of the company he founded, also called Fred Harvey (not Fred Harvey, Inc.—just plain
- [<em>The Diversity Myth</em> (Peter Thiel and David Sacks)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/01/30/book-review-the-diversity-myth-thiel-sacks/) - “The Diversity Myth” is a twenty-year-old book that nobody would remember, despite its many virtues, were it not for that its authors (and many of the young figures in its pages) have since then become highly-visible billionaires, and, in the case of Peter Thiel, prominent public intellectuals. None of them knew that then, though (presumably!),
- [<em>Dreamland</em> (Sam Quinones)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/11/03/book-review-dreamland-sam-quinones/) - “Dreamland” is about opiate addition, and about an America most of us don’t see. Those most affected by the explosion in opiate use chronicled in “Dreamland” are members of the white underclass, a group with no champions and no power, and therefore little focus on its problems. To the extent it affects those not in
- [<em>Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography</em> (William F. Buckley)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/11/16/book-review-miles-gone-by-a-literary-autobiography-william-f-buckley/) - “Miles Gone By” is a good, but somewhat disorienting, book. It’s disorienting, first, because it’s disjointed—while divided into chapters covering different topics, it’s actually composed entirely of previously published pieces, without any attempt to knit them together coherently, in time or theme, as would be usual in an autobiography. The result isn’t bad, it’s just
- [<em>The Blueprint</em> (Witwer & Schrager)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/10/26/book-review-the-blueprintwitwer-schrager/) - “The Blueprint” is well written. But its predictions have now been repeatedly falsified, and it downplays critical elements in its analysis. Therefore, I cannot recommend it except as a narrow and dated historical analysis of Colorado politics in the middle of the last decade. Schrager and Witwer (full disclosure—I know Witwer slightly, or did many
- [<em>Curry: A Global History</em> (Colleen Taylor Sen)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/09/06/book-review-curry-a-global-history-colleen-taylor-sen/) - This short book is an interesting read, even if it’s really just a summary of the different impacts of Indian cooking spices around the world. The story isn’t new, of course—it’s well known that the migration of Indians around the world has resulted in a wide range of hybrid cuisines, some with very little resemblance
- [<em>The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West</em> (Toby Huff)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/09/07/book-review-the-rise-of-early-modern-science-islam-china-and-the-west-toby-huff/) - This is a magisterial book, pulling together innumerable threads into a coherent, cohesive whole. It is actually a different book than I expected—it spends much more time on the sociology and philosophy of science, in the abstract and as tied to and generated by each society, and much less time on individual scientific inventions and
- [<em>The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left</em> (Yuval Levin)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/09/16/book-review-the-great-debate-edmund-burke-thomas-paine-and-the-birth-of-right-and-left-yuval-levin/) - This is a clarifying book. In today’s Kardashian Kulture, even the well-informed, who know who Thomas Paine and Edmund Burke were, cannot generally give a cogent description of their thought, much less a point-counterpoint description of their fundamental ideas and disagreements. I know I certainly couldn’t. That is, until I read this book, which brilliantly
- [<em>Politics in the Ancient World</em> (M.I. Finley)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/09/28/book-review-politics-in-the-ancient-world-m-i-finley/) - “Politics In The Ancient World” is a short work, a compilation and modification of a series of lectures given in 1980 by the Communist classicist M. I. Finley. Each lecture is a chapter, and while each chapter explores a different area of Greek and Roman politics, they are linked within an over-arching theme. The book’s
- [<em>The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge</em> (Calvin Coolidge)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/08/09/book-review-the-autobiography-of-calvin-coolidge-calvin-coolidge/) - I read this book after reading Amity Shlaes’s “Coolidge,” in part because Shlaes more than once refers to the “Autobiography.” While it is not an analytical work, rather a straightforward exposition by Coolidge of the facts of his life, it is an excellent complement to Shlaes’s longer (and also excellent) work. And as with that
- [<em>The Girl With All The Gifts</em> (M. R. Carey)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/08/09/book-review-the-girl-with-all-the-gifts-m-r-carey/) - While it's in many ways a typical version of the apocalyptic genre currently fashionable, this book is quite good. It has some significant originality, and is generally compelling and well-drawn. Aside from a few jarring factual problems that should have been caught by editors (pistol triggers don't not move if the magazine is empty--the hammer
- [<em>Masters of Command</em> (Barry Strauss)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/08/10/book-review-masters-of-command-barry-strauss/) - This is a great introduction to three of the most important historical figures of the Classical Age. Since lack of historical knowledge is a plague upon the land in these latter days, Strauss does us a great service by providing a popular, concise history of these men. He compounds this service by drawing parallels and
- [<em>The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good</em> (William Easterly)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/08/11/book-review-the-white-mans-burden-why-the-wests-efforts-to-aid-the-rest-have-done-so-much-ill-and-so-little-good-william-easterly/) - “The White Man’s Burden,” despite its inflammatory title, is a measured analysis of the ability of the West to help alleviate poverty in the rest of the world. The title is actually ironic, for the book concludes, in essence, that most of the burden the West has taken on has led to no improvement and
- [<em>The Death of Caesar</em> (Barry Strauss)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/08/20/book-review-the-death-of-caesar-barry-strauss/) - “The Death of Caesar” is Barry Strauss’s latest work on the politics and warfare of the Classical World. Strauss is perhaps today’s most prominent author writing histories of this type—highly readable, not too lengthy, cogent analyses that are designed for the general modern reader. Among other topics, Strauss has covered the Trojan War, Salamis, Spartacus,
- [<em>Coming Apart</em> (Charles Murray)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/08/23/book-review-coming-apart-charles-murray/) - This is a deeply pessimistic book. Charles Murray warns, Cassandra-like, of the ill effects that are resulting and will result from the economic and cultural divergence between the upper and lower classes. Even so, he tries to be optimistic, and he succeeds in being optimistic himself, but he doesn’t succeed in convincing the reader to
- [<em>The Edge of the World: A Cultural History of the North Sea</em> (Michael Pye)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/08/24/book-review-the-edge-of-the-world-a-cultural-history-of-the-north-sea-michael-pye/) - “The Edge Of The World” is an ambitious book. Its subtitle is “A Cultural History of the North Sea and the Transformation of Europe,” and its core thesis is that the cultural impact of the peoples bordering the North Sea has been ignored. I think that thesis is false—such cultural impact can be seen everywhere,
- [<em>The Spirit of Early Christian Thought</em> (Robert Louis Wilken)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/08/31/book-review-the-spirit-of-early-christian-thought-robert-louis-wilken/) - This book is not a polemic or a book of apologetics; it is instead an exposition of what early Church theologians thought about important topics in Christian belief, and how those thoughts evolved and grew. If you think all theology is merely empty wind or arguments about angels dancing on the head of a pin,
- [<em>The Better Angels of Our Nature</em> (Steven Pinker)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/07/06/book-review-the-better-angels-of-our-nature-stephen-pinker/) - This is a sprawling mess of a book. Flashes of arguably brilliant insight alternate with meandering musings. Fascinating narrow conclusions are drawn from carefully parsed evidence—and then sweeping conclusions are drawn from highly dubious evidence. Historical insights are used incisively in an argument—then the next argument is undermined by total historical illiteracy. At the end,
- [<em>Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero</em> (Michael Korda)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/07/07/book-review-ulysses-s-grant-the-unlikely-hero-michael-korda/) - This is a slight book, but it does not claim to be more. As a basic introduction to the life of Ulysses Grant, once the most famous person in the world and now essentially forgotten, it is very good. I am not qualified to judge the accuracy of the details, of which some other reviewers
- [<em>Thomas Jefferson: Author of America</em> (Christopher Hitchens)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/07/07/book-review-thomas-jefferson-author-of-america-christopher-hitchens/) - Typical incisive Hitchens, but marred by his anti-religious obsessions and biases, along with some strange lapses (mis-defining "entail"; mis-using "usufruct"; and others). Also way too much focus on slavery for a book less than 200 pages--it could better have been subtitled not "Author Of America" but "His Views And Actions On Slavery; And Some Other
- [<em>The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor</em> (William Easterly)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/07/22/book-review-the-tyranny-of-experts-economists-dictators-and-the-forgotten-rights-of-the-poor-william-easterly/) - William Easterly is a leading critic of traditional approaches to development—that is, of traditional approaches to bridging the Great Divergence. He, and everyone else studying development, want to know why and how the West and a few Western-influenced countries have become wealthy, and everyone else in the world has stayed poor, despite trillions of dollars
- [<em>This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly</em> (Reinhart & Rogoff)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/07/22/book-review-this-time-is-different-eight-centuries-of-financial-folly-reinhart-rogoff/) - Unfortunately, this book is nearly unreadable. Oh, I’m sure it’s readable if you’re a professional or academic economist. But for the casual reader, even one with a pretty good background knowledge of economics, it’s mostly an endless series of highly technical, loosely related charts, graphs and conclusions. All this to agree with the writer of
- [<em>How Dante Can Save Your Life</em> (Rod Dreher)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/07/26/book-review-how-dante-can-save-your-life-rod-dreher/) - Rod Dreher’s latest book is a mix of self-help advice, autobiography, and literary exposition. It sounds odd. It is odd. But it works wonderfully. From a self-help perspective, which is in many ways the main thrust of the book, Dreher’s goal is to share the good news—not (necessarily) the good news as traditionally viewed, that
- [<em>A Study of History, Vol. 1: Abridgement of Volumes I-VI</em> (Arnold Toynbee)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/06/11/book-review-a-study-of-history-vol-1-abridgement-of-volumes-i-vi/) - I really wanted to like this book. It’s regarded as a classic, from a time before the study of history became corrupted by political correctness. From a time when the ascendancy of a civilization was taken for granted as a good, and history was not dominated by gender and race “studies,” but focused on the
- [<em>Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great and the War for Crown and Empire</em> (James Romm)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/05/04/book-review-ghost-on-the-throne-the-death-of-alexander-the-great-and-the-war-for-crown-and-empire-james-romm/) - Who knew how exciting the events of the fourth century BC could be? Most of us have a dim idea of Alexander the Great—conqueror of Greece and points East, all the way to India. But it’s a pretty dim idea. And most of us have very little idea of what happened in the classical world
- [<em>Infantry Attacks</em> (Erwin Rommel)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/04/23/book-review-infantry-attacks-erwin-rommel/) - Most people have heard of Erwin Rommel, at least in passing. But most people probably associate his name with only two events: World War Two tank battles in North Africa, and Rommel’s forced suicide by Hitler because of his ancillary association with Stauffenberg’s attempt to assassinate Hitler. And most people probably have a general sense
- [<em>Gun Control in the Third Reich</em> (Stephen P. Halbrook)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/04/25/book-review-gun-control-in-the-third-reich-stephen-p-halbrook/) - Gun control is one of those few issues where there are zero good arguments on one side. Almost anyone who supports gun control is ignorant. Not a malicious ignorance, necessarily—more of an ignorance born of a love of moral preening. On the other hand, it is true that a few gun control supporters are not
- [<em>A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History</em> (Nicholas Wade)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/03/14/book-review-a-troublesome-inheritance-genes-race-and-human-history-nicholas-wade/) - Whether this book is good or bad depends largely on what you expect it to be. If you expect it to be a cautious attempt to open up to discussion the subject of the existence of distinct races and genetic racial differences, and how those might affect social structures and institutions, you will think it
- [<em>The Road To Mecca</em> (Muhammad Asad)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/03/16/book-review-the-road-to-mecca-muhammad-asad/) - This is a fascinating book—half travelogue and half conversion memoir. Muhammad Asad was born a Jew, Leopold Weiss, in the Austro-Hungarian empire (in what is now Ukraine, the city of Lvov). He was prominent both in interactions with the West in the 20th Century, for example as Pakistani ambassador to the UN, and in theological
- [<em>Understanding Arabs: A Contemporary Guide to Arab Society</em> (Margaret Nydell)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/03/21/book-review-understanding-arabs-a-contemporary-guide-to-arab-society-margaret-nydell/) - This is an awful book. It (the fifth edition, from 2012) contains a tiny bit of apparently useful information, which may or may not be true or generally applicable, combined with heaps of mendacious propaganda and annoying hectoring, padded out with material yanked from the likes of Wikipedia. If you’re relying on it to help
- [<em>Sir Walter Raleigh</em> (Raleigh Trevelyan)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/03/30/book-review-sir-walter-raleigh-raleigh-trevelyan/) - This book not only illuminates Sir Walter Raleigh’s life, but also illuminates his times in a way that brings real benefit to the reader. The author, Raleigh Trevelyan (who died in 2014), does an excellent job of making Raleigh’s story compelling, maintaining focus on his protagonist while bringing in enough of the historical and political
- [<em>Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres</em> (Henry Adams)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/02/22/book-review-mont-saint-michel-and-chartres-henry-adams/) - Henry Adams is the type of author, and an author, whom every educated American once read and discussed. Now, he and his type have been replaced by stupid studies of so-called "white privilege," and the triumphant martryologies of the past have been replaced by the mewling victimologies of the present, much to the detriment of
- [<em>The Locust Effect</em> (Haugen & Boutros)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/02/02/book-review-the-locust-effect-haugen-boutros/) - I was hoping to find real insight in this book. I didn’t. Not because the authors are not well-informed—they are very well informed about their topic. Nor because the authors are not well-intentioned—they are very well-intentioned. Nor do they appear to be wrong about most or all of their facts. But despite all their effort,
- [<em>Milestones</em> (Seyyid Qutb)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/02/12/book-review-milestones-seyyid-qutb/) - Milestones claims to be a revivalist primer, to return Islam to its roots, but it is really a hybrid of traditional Islam with modern ideological organizing systems, primarily Leninism. This hybrid has proven to be a powerful combination, perhaps unsurprisingly given the power of both Leninism and modern Islamism in the 20th Century. Qutb’s contribution
- [<em>Sacred Causes: The Clash of Religion and Politics, from the Great War to the War on Terror</em> (Michael Burleigh)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/02/17/book-review-sacred-causes-the-clash-of-religion-and-politics-from-the-great-war-to-the-war-on-terror-michael-burleigh/) - Michael Burleigh is a noted European historian, primarily known for a synthesis approach that blends intellectual, cultural and “hard” history, frequently with a heavy focus on religious and moral elements. Sacred Causes, along with its earlier companion, Earthly Powers, aspires to a synthesis of religion and politics in all of Europe, from the French Revolution
- [<em>Crunchy Cons</em> (Rod Dreher)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/02/21/book-review-crunchy-cons-rod-dreher/) - This book is a classic that I finally got around to reading. Maybe it's strange to say a book less than ten years old is a classic, but Dreher is the foremost exponent today of what might be called "alternative conservatism," and he would call the "Benedictine Option," but what most people would call "traditional
- [<em>The Coming Anarchy</em> (Robert Kaplan)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/01/31/book-review-the-coming-anarchy-robert-kaplan/) - This is an interesting book, because it’s a book of (pessimistic) analysis and predictions made long enough ago (mid- to late-1990s) that some judgment can be made of its accuracy. It’s a book of several essays of varying lengths on varying topics, based largely on direct observation from Kaplan’s travels, but all generally focused around
- [<em>The Great Divergence</em> (Kenneth Pomeranz)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/05/17/book-review-the-great-divergence-kenneth-pomeranz/) - It is hardly news that the West has led the world economically for the past 200 years, or more. This superiority (let’s be honest—that’s what it is) academics commonly call the “Great Divergence,” a term coined by Samuel Huntington in 1996, though the study of Western economic superiority began much earlier. There are many sub-questions
- [<em>White Working Class</em> (Joan Williams)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/05/18/book-review-white-working-classjoan-williams/) - Joan Williams wants to “Overcome Class Cluelessness in America.” This is an admirable goal, and in many ways this is an admirable book (or brochure—it’s very short). But reading White Working Class (which, despite its title, gives equal time to both the white and black working class) makes the reader squirm. The reader appreciates the
- [<em>Churchill & Orwell</em> (Thomas Ricks)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/06/06/book-review-churchill-orwell-thomas-ricks/) - The heroes of every age are often not seen as heroes during their lives, or if so viewed in their own age they are not so viewed in later ages. And doubtless perceptions of heroes change as one future passes into another. But for us, today, Churchill and Orwell are heroes to many, and whatever
- [<em>Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West</em> (William Cronon)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/06/07/book-review-natures-metropolis-chicago-and-the-great-westwilliam-cronon/) - This is a fantastic book that well deserves its reputation as a classic. Part history, part sociological study, part economic analysis, and part ecological survey, William Cronon examines the growth of Chicago by studying the city’s 19th Century relationship to the larger “Great West” (more or less the once-sparsely settled regions between the Ohio River
- [<em> The Face of Water: A Translator on Beauty and Meaning in the Bible</em> (Sarah Ruden)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/06/08/book-reviewthe-face-of-water-a-translator-on-beauty-and-meaning-in-the-bible-sarah-ruden/) - Sarah Ruden may be my favorite author. It’s not that I’ve read everything she’s written—her main oeuvre is translation of classics such as the Aeneid, and I find all the classics hard going. (The Aeneid is something that you know you should read—in college, I read the Cliffs Notes instead, and have felt guilty ever
- [<em>The Life and Prayers of Saint Joan of Arc</em> (Wyatt North)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/06/12/book-review-the-life-and-prayers-of-saint-joan-of-arc-wyatt-north/) - This book is pure hagiography. While I suppose hagiography has its uses, mostly to gull and overawe the under-educated, I dislike hagiography. But at least it can be good hagiography; it can be great literature by towering men of intellect, or if not that, at least it can interest and inform the reader. Not this
- [<em>Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?</em> (Graham Allison)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/06/14/book-review-destined-for-war-can-america-and-china-escape-thucydidess-trap-graham-allison/) - Graham Allison, a Harvard professor and sometime government functionary, is clearly a man who thinks a great deal of himself. On the other hand, most of his pride in himself actually seems justified by his experience and thought, and in these Trumpian days, perhaps immodesty is the Spirit of the Age. Therefore, if you can
- [<em>Cake: A Slice of History</em> (Alysa Levene)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/06/22/book-review-cake-a-slice-of-history-alysa-levene/) - I’ve always liked food history—maybe because as a small child I spent quite a lot of time reading The Cooking of Vienna’s Empire, a Time-Life cookbook my mother had, and from it learned quite a bit of history. Many, if not most, modern cookbooks contain large sections of history, and many food history books contain
- [<em>Augustine: Conversions to Confessions</em> (Robin Lane Fox)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/06/23/book-review-augustine-conversions-to-confessions-robin-lane-fox/) - Most of us, or so I like to think in order to feel better about myself, steer away from actually reading St. Augustine. We know that he is an intellectual giant and one of the handful of core, key thinkers of Christianity, but everything he has to say seem so dense, and wasn’t he the
- [<em>Armada</em> (Ernest Cline)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/07/18/book-review-armada-ernest-cline/) - Most bad books have some redeeming feature. This one doesn’t. Ernest Cline’s first book, Ready Player One, was quite good for what it was—an exercise in Eighties nostalgia, aimed at people like me who came of age in that golden time. Armada is an attempt to further capitalize on that nostalgia, but it’s more reminiscent
- [<em>How Civilizations Die</em> (David Goldman)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/07/19/book-review-how-civilizations-die-david-goldman/) - I have read David Goldman for a long time, under his alter ego, Spengler, a columnist for the Asia Times. His columns are invariably excellent—pithy, insightful, and a pleasure to read. But the talent set required to be a columnist is very different than that required of a book author. Many columnists are unable to
- [<em>Scars of Independence</em> (Holger Hoock)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/07/20/book-review-scars-of-independence-holger-hoock/) - Scars of Independence should carry a big banner across its front, shouting “New & Improved!” The book’s central, and only, claim to relevance is that it offers fresh insight into the War of Independence, uncovering hidden truths and exploding myths. But, as with most “New & Improved” products, the consumer is disappointed, for while this
- [<em>Hue 1968</em> (Mark Bowden)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/07/30/book-review-hue-1968-mark-bowden/) - I have a confession to make. The first history I learned about the Vietnam War was from watching the move Rambo, in 1985. Around the same time, and viewable on VHS (what’s that, Daddy?) if you missed it in the theater, were movies like Platoon and Full Metal Jacket, the latter set during the battle
- [<em>Postwar:  A History of Europe Since 1945</em> (Tony Judt)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/08/01/book-review-postwar-a-history-of-europe-since-1945-tony-judt/) - Postwar, by the late Tony Judt, is the type of book for which the term “magisterial” might have been invented. Judt takes an enormous amount of information and condenses it down to a manageable narrative, not in the service of some overarching thesis, but simply to communicate the basic history of the period (namely, from
- [<em>The CEO Pay Machine</em> (Steven Clifford)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/08/24/book-review-the-ceo-pay-machine-steven-clifford/) - I’ve been complaining about the topic of this book for at least fifteen years. Actually, my basic complaint has been broader—that almost all CEOs are, when not actually idiots, indistinguishable in their abilities and performance from any moderately competent manager. If this is true (and it is), one necessary consequence is that high pay for
- [<em>The Once and Future Liberal</em> (Mark Lilla)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/08/30/book-review-the-once-and-future-liberal-mark-lilla/) - Mark Lilla has been a bad, bad boy. He has dared to point out the feet of clay upon which stand King Liberal, and he, like Cassandra, will not be thanked. Still, this short book is an excellent political analysis, and it points the way, if only loosely, to a wholly new order of things,
- [<em>The Earth Is Weeping</em> (Peter Cozzens)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/09/01/book-review-the-earth-is-weeping-peter-cozzens/) - The Earth Is Weeping offers an almost painfully even-handed look at the conflicts between the United States and American Indian tribes after the Civil War. Of course, given the historiography of the past fifty years, an even-handed look necessarily inverts the traditional narrative. Here, Team Indian does good and bad, and Team White does good
- [<em>The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise</em> (Darío Fernández-Morera)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/09/26/book-review-the-myth-of-the-andalusian-paradise-dario-fernandez-morera/) - This book is ferociously erudite, but tinged with obsession. True, nearly all modern academic and popular mention of Muslim Spain endorses an easily disproved falsehood—that Muslim Spain was a golden land of tolerance, offering unique scientific and cultural advancement. So I suppose that the opposite falsehood, that Muslim Spain was a nasty land of unbroken
- [<em>Theology for a Troubled Believer</em> (Diogenes Allen)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/10/11/book-review-theology-for-a-troubled-believer-diogenes-allen/) - From its title, Theology for a Troubled Believer seems directed at people having a crisis of faith. That’s not precisely true; this is not a work of apologetics. The author, the late Diogenes Allen, did not intend to convert in this work, rather he “intended [it] to increase a critical but pious person’s understanding of
- [<em>Comandante: Hugo Chávez's Venezuela</em> (Rory Carroll)](https://theworthyhouse.com/2015/08/05/book-review-comandante-hugo-chavezs-venezuela-rory-carroll/) - In the United States, most of us glimpse Venezuela in flashes. We know that Hugo Chavez is dead, and we know that his socialism has run Venezuela into the ground. As of this writing, in August 2015, it is a crime-ridden hellhole that has reached the stage of military confiscation of foodstuffs from farmers for
- [Colloquy:  Why Vote For Trump, and What Do Conservatives Want?](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/06/16/colloquy-why-vote-for-trump-and-what-do-conservatives-want/) - [Italics are my interlocutor; regular text is me.] Hi Charles, I've been pondering the Republican debacle that is Donald Trump and would love your view. I'm wondering what alternatives a Republican with coherent conservative principles is supposed to do in the coming election. Is the anti-Hillary vote a vote for Trump? Or is a conservative
- [Colloquy: Why Conservatives Don't Care About "Russian Email Hacks"](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/12/16/colloquy-why-conservatives-dont-care-about-russian-email-hacks/) - [Italics are my interlocutor; regular text is me.] I honestly don't understand this "Russian hacking" thing. As I understand it, somebody (apparently presumably the Russians) stole private Democratic emails damaging to the Democrats and publicized them. This allegedly somehow supposedly "rigged" the election. As far as I can tell, there is no claim of actual
- [Colloquy: Not-For-Profits Are Not Inherently Virtuous and "Giving Back" Is A Stupid Term](https://theworthyhouse.com/2016/11/07/colloquy-not-for-profits-are-not-inherently-virtuous-and-giving-back-is-a-stupid-term/) - [This is a colloquy between myself and a friend of mine. Italics are her; regular text is me. She is responding initially to a comment I had made about "evil not-for-profits."] I don't understand, but without the rhetoric, I really want to see the world through your eyes regarding your comment about "evil not-for-profit..." How

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text_color_h=\"var(--knews-white)\" f_text_font_family=\"global-font-1_global\" f_text_font_weight=\"900\" icon_size=\"15\" icon_pos=\"between\" tagline=\"JUVEJTg2JUI1JUVDJUIwJUIwJUVCJUEwJUE1\" f_text_font_size=\"18\" f_tagline_font_size=\"18\" f_tagline_font_family=\"global-font-1_global\" f_tagline_font_weight=\"900\" tagline_color=\"var(--knews-white)\" tagline_color_h=\"var(--knews-white)\" display=\"\" tagline_pos=\"inline\" icon_space=\"10\" 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page_id=\"312\" header_pos=\"over-content\" all_head_border=\"eyJwaG9uZSI6IjAifQ==\" body_padd=\"eyJwaG9uZSI6IjAifQ==\" show_modal_composer=\"yes\" head_padd=\"eyJwaG9uZSI6IjI1cHggMjVweCAwcHgifQ==\"][/vc_column][/vc_row][/tdc_zone]","tdc_is_header_sticky":false,"tdc_is_mobile_header_sticky":false}
- [TWH Single Post Template](https://theworthyhouse.com/tdb_templates/single-post-template-blog-gadgets/) - Category ICategory IICategory III July 11, 2026 Sample Page Title written by Author Name Morbi libero lectus, laoreet elementum viverra vitae, sodales sit amet nisi. Vivamus dolor ipsum, ultrices in accumsan nec, viverra in nulla. Donec ligula sem, dignissim quis purus a, ultricies lacinia lectus. Aenean scelerisque, justo ac varius viverra, nisl arcu accumsan elit,
- [TWH Footer Template With Quotes](https://theworthyhouse.com/tdb_templates/twh-footer-template-2/) - Live not by lies. — Aleksandr SolzhenitsynTell me who your enemy is and I will tell you who you are. — Carl SchmittIf 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
- [TWH Mobile Header](https://theworthyhouse.com/tdb_templates/twh-mobile-header/) - {"tdc_header_desktop":"[tdc_zone type=\"tdc_header_desktop\" tdc_css=\"eyJhbGwiOnsiZGlzcGxheSI6IiJ9fQ==\" h_display=\"\" h_position=\"\" zone_shadow_shadow_offset_horizontal=\"0\" row_bg_gradient=\"#ffffff\"][vc_row tdc_css=\"eyJhbGwiOnsiYmFja2dyb3VuZC1jb2xvciI6IiNmZmZmZmYiLCJkaXNwbGF5IjoiIn19\" full_width=\"stretch_row\" gap=\"0\" flex_layout=\"row\" flex_vert_align=\"flex-start\" flex_horiz_align=\"center\" sticky_position=\"\" row_divider_top=\"\" flex_width=\"auto\" flex_grow=\"off\" svg_background_color_top=\"#ffffff\" content_align_vertical=\"content-vert-top\"][vc_column width=\"1/1\" flex_horiz_align=\"space-evenly\" flex_layout=\"column\" flex_vert_align=\"flex-end\" flex_width=\"100%\" flex_grow=\"default\"][vc_empty_space][tdb_header_menu sub_tdicon=\"td-icon-right-arrow\" mm_align_horiz=\"content-horiz-center\" modules_on_row_regular=\"20%\" modules_on_row_cats=\"25%\" 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f_elem_font_size=\"18\" tds_menu_active=\"tds_menu_active1\" tds_menu_active1-line_color=\"#000000\" hover_opacity=\"100%\" tds_menu_active1-line_alignment=\"11\" tds_menu_active1-line_width=\"90%\"][vc_empty_space][/vc_column][/vc_row][/tdc_zone]","tdc_header_desktop_sticky":"[tdc_zone type=\"tdc_header_desktop_sticky\" s_transition_type=\"\" tdc_css=\"eyJhbGwiOnsiZGlzcGxheSI6IiJ9fQ==\" hs_transition_type=\"\" hs_transition_effect=\"slide\" hs_sticky_type=\"\"][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][/tdc_zone]","tdc_header_mobile":"[tdc_zone type=\"tdc_header_mobile\" tdc_css=\"eyJwaG9uZSI6eyJkaXNwbGF5IjoiIn0sInBob25lX21heF93aWR0aCI6NzY3fQ==\"][vc_row][vc_column flex_horiz_align=\"eyJhbGwiOiJmbGV4LXN0YXJ0IiwicGhvbmUiOiJmbGV4LWVuZCJ9\"][tdb_header_logo align_vert=\"content-vert-center\" disable_h1=\"yes\" media_size_image_height=\"193\" media_size_image_width=\"696\" image=\"9776\"][vc_empty_space][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row flex_layout=\"eyJhbGwiOiJibG9jayIsInBob25lIjoicm93In0=\" 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page_id=\"312\" header_pos=\"over-content\" all_head_border=\"eyJwaG9uZSI6IjAifQ==\" body_padd=\"eyJwaG9uZSI6IjAifQ==\" show_modal_composer=\"yes\" head_padd=\"eyJwaG9uZSI6IjI1cHggMjVweCAwcHgifQ==\"][/vc_column][/vc_row][/tdc_zone]","tdc_is_header_sticky":false,"tdc_is_mobile_header_sticky":false}
- [TWH Mobile Footer No Quotes](https://theworthyhouse.com/tdb_templates/twh-mobile-footer-2/)
- [Search Template - Default PRO](https://theworthyhouse.com/tdb_templates/search-template-default-pro/) - HomeSample Page Sample Page Title - search results Search Red State Mars (Travis Corcoran) July 9, 2026 The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in An Age of Diminishing Expectations (Christopher Lasch) May 16, 2026 Rome and Persia: The Seven Hundred Year Rivalry (Adrian Goldsworthy) April 27, 2026 The Nomos of the Earth in the International
- [TWH Footer Template No Quotes](https://theworthyhouse.com/tdb_templates/footer-template-default-pro/)
- [TWH Mobile Single Post](https://theworthyhouse.com/tdb_templates/twh-mobile-single-post/) - July 11, 2026 Sample Page Title written by Author Name Morbi libero lectus, laoreet elementum viverra vitae, sodales sit amet nisi. Vivamus dolor ipsum, ultrices in accumsan nec, viverra in nulla. Donec ligula sem, dignissim quis purus a, ultricies lacinia lectus. Aenean scelerisque, justo ac varius viverra, nisl arcu accumsan elit, quis laoreet metus ipsum
- [TWH Mobile Footer](https://theworthyhouse.com/tdb_templates/twh-mobile-footer/) - Live not by lies. — Aleksandr SolzhenitsynTell me who your enemy is and I will tell you who you are. — Carl SchmittIf 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
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