Book Review: “His Excellency Eugène Rougon”
I’ve been reading Zola’s “Rougon-Macquart” series at the rate of about one a year. This one is the sixth one. I guess I have another fourteen years to go... Read more.
Book Review: “In the Shadow of Justice: Postwar Liberalism and the Remaking of Political Philosophy”
Liberalism! The great empty hole in many radicals’ understanding of the political spectrum. In many respects, we treat it like a fact of life, like the weather,... Read more.
Book Review: “The Managerial Revolution: What Is Happening in the World”
Who does half-smart like a renegade Trotskyite? From what I can tell of his biography, James Burnham didn’t come to Trotskyism the way you think a political figure... Read more.
Book Review: “The Constitution of Liberty”
It’s honestly getting to be like Charlie Brown and the football, me and these right-wing intellectuals. I mean it when I say I expect more from these people.
I... Read more.
Audiobook Review: “High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies”
Reading (well, listening to) this book, appropriately enough given its content and tone, was an experience. Historian of religions Erik Davis landed this book right... Read more.
Book Review: “Mainstreaming Black Power”
I read this out of a desire to get a more finely-grained picture of the recession of the Black Freedom Movement in the 1970s, and what came after. The more I think... Read more.
Book Review: “The Nationalization of the Masses: Political Symbolism and Mass Movements in Germany from the Napoleonic Wars through the Third Reich”
George Mosse had the sort of career that the history profession doesn’t really allow for today. No matter how brilliant an individual historian might be, the way... Read more.
Book Review: “Fair Trade”
I’m not one hundred percent certain I know what a “thriller” is, and especially where the line is drawn between thrillers that depict crime and conventional... Read more.
Book Review: “2034: A Novel of the Next World War”
Who does half-smart like a renegade Trotskyite? From what I can tell of his biography, James Burnham didn’t come to Trotskyism the way you think a political figure... Read more.
Book Review: “Lonesome Dove”
I remember when I was a little kid driving back and forth on errands with my parents that there was a lot more graffiti on the granite rocks along the highways than... Read more.