History
History, Politics & Rights, Reviews
Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America’s Founders by Dennis C. Rasmussen
Jon Hersey May 3, 2024
Most of America's founders came to despair that things had gone dreadfully awry and that their creation would soon crumble. What can their disillusionment teach us about America's future?
History, Politics & Rights
Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia by Gary J. Bass
Timothy Sandefur April 11, 2024
The first comprehensive book on the Japanese war crimes trial, Judgment at Tokyo is an exceptional feat of political, legal, and historical scholarship.
History, Politics & Rights, Reviews
America’s Rise and Fall among Nations: Lessons in Statecraft from John Quincy Adams by Angelo Codevilla
Bill Sanders February 22, 2024
America’s Rise and Fall among Nations provides a broad perspective of the course of American statecraft over the centuries, showing its arc from humble, inward-looking beginnings to grandiose ambitions after the 19th century.
History, Politics & Rights, Reviews
Freedom’s Furies: How Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand Found Liberty in an Age of Darkness by Timothy Sandefur
Molly Sechrest February 22, 2024
Timothy Sandefur’s Freedom’s Furies: How Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand Found Liberty in an Age of Darkness describes how the three "Furies" radically opposed prevailing trends, became friends, and gave birth to the modern American liberty movement.
History, Politics & Rights, Science & Technology
Centers of Progress: An Interview with Chelsea Follett
Thomas Walker-Werth December 24, 2023
I recently spoke with Chelsea Follett, managing editor of HumanProgress.org and policy analyst at Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, about her new book, Centers of Progress: 40 Cities That Changed the World. Here is our discussion, edited for clarity and brevity.
History, Politics & Rights
What Is ‘Israeli Occupation’?
Jon Hersey December 19, 2023
“Israeli occupation” is on the lips of everyone from Hamas militants to Harvard students, European protestors to American politicians. But what does it actually mean?
Arts & Culture, History
Frank Lloyd Wright: Rebel Architect
Timothy Sandefur November 23, 2023
It would be hard to name an artist whose influence has been as ubiquitous as Frank Lloyd Wright’s. Yet he achieved his status not by lowering his standards but through a devoted pursuit of his ideals—ideals that gave voice to the principles of individuality and aspiration at the center of the American consciousness.
Arts & Culture, History, Reviews
Killers of the Flower Moon, Directed by Martin Scorsese
Thomas Walker-Werth October 28, 2023
Killers of the Flower Moon is a bloated film with a malevolent sense of life. Despite its enormous runtime, it misses the opportunity to depict both the rights abuses to which the Osage were subjected and the good entrepreneurship they and others engaged in.
Arts & Culture, History, Reviews
Oppenheimer, Written and Directed by Christopher Nolan
Angelica Walker-Werth July 28, 2023
Oppenheimer was a key mind behind the invention and development of the bombs that ended World War II. He was also haunted by the question of whether producing these bombs was the right thing to do. This question runs throughout Christopher Nolan’s recent biopic, Oppenheimer, hailed by some as “the most epic WWII film yet."
Biographies, History
Robert P. McCulloch: The Man Who Bought London Bridge
Thomas Walker-Werth July 11, 2023
Robert P. McCulloch worked constantly to grow his wealth and create new things, even when others couldn’t see the potential in his ideas or dismissed them as impossible. He deserves to be remembered as a productive businessman, a pioneering inventor, and, most of all, a visionary.