From the editor’s desk: From the editor's desk On pages 14 and 15 of this issue we have book reviews of three giants of mid-20th century conservatism: William F. Buckley, Frank S. Meyer, and James Burnham. All three were at the founding of National Review, a magazine that has shaped U.S. conservatism since its founding 70 Novembers ago in 1955. [...]
Paul Tuns, Review: James Burnham: An Intellectual Biography by David T. Byrne (Northern Illinois University Press, $45.95, 242 pages) James Burnham, like many of those on the political Right in the second half of the 20th century, migrated there from the Left. Historian David T. Byrne examines the intellectual journey of this foundational conservative thinker from literary critic and Trotskyite philosopher to one [...]
Paul Tuns, Review: The Man who Invented Conservatism: The Unlikely Life of Frank S. Meyer by Daniel Flynn (Encounter, $54.99, 544 pages) Frank Meyer is the most important conservative whose name you never heard. Perhaps more than anyone not named William F. Buckley, he shaped American conservatism to adopt the seemingly contradictory stances of promoting a socially dynamic economic freedom with respect for [...]
Paul Tuns, Review: Buckley: The Life and Revolution that Changed America by Sam Tanenhaus (Random House, $54, 1018 pages) The conservative columnist George F. Will says that before there was Ronald Reagan there was Barry Goldwater, that before that there was Goldwater there was National Review magazine, and before NR there was its founder William F. Buckley. Buckley was without doubt, the most influential [...]
Paul Tuns: Just 11 days after Charlie Kirk was killed, his widow Erika Kirk addressed the nationally broadcast memorial service with words of grace: “My husband, Charlie, he wanted to save young men just like the one who took his life … On the cross, our Savior said: ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ That young man—that young [...]
From the editor's desk One of the necessary ingredients to reversing tanking fertility rates is restoring the vaunted place of motherhood and one way to do that is to make life easier for moms and families. Katherine Boyle, general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, tweeted some policy ideas on how to accomplish this: “Here’s some super easy things states [...]
Paul Tuns Source Code: My Beginnings by Bill Gates (Knopf, $37.95, 318 pages) To many on the Right, Bill Gates is a villain, a personification of the World Economic Forum Man. To social conservatives, he is another billionaire using his wealth to promote left-wing social causes including depopulation in the developing world. To some on the Left, he’s just another baneful plutocrat. [...]
From the editor’s desk Paul Tuns: From the editor's desk Kevin Yuill writes about the eugenic roots of the euthanasia movement in Spiked: “This campaign of involuntary euthanasia, known as Aktion T4, cost tens of thousands of lives. According to the Nazis’ own record, at least 70,000 disabled people were put to death, although some sources suggest that the figure [...]
From the editor's desk: From the editor's desk New York City-based Orthodox Jewish university, reversed its decision to permit an LGBTQ club, Hareni, from operating on campus. In March, the university, with campuses in Manhattan and the Bronx, agreed to official club status for Hareni. However, on May 9, in a letter to the school community, the university said that [...]
Paul Tuns, Review: We Have Ceased to See the Purpose: Essential Speeches of Aleksander Solzhenitsyn edited by Ignat Solzhenitsyn (Notre Dame University Press, $38, 195 pages) The novelist and essayist Aleksander Solzhenitsyn is best-known as a Soviet dissident who spent time in communist concentration camps known as the gulag, of which he became their most famous chronicler. He is one of [...]
From the editor’s desk: We live in an age in which far too many people live lives of anguish because they lack meaning or are searching for it in the wrong places. In Be not Afraid of Life: In the Words of William James (Princeton, $24.99, 377 pages), John Kaag and Jonathan Van Belle say that seekers looking for meaning could do [...]
Paul Tuns Review: We Who Wrestle with God: Perceptions of the Divine by Jordan Peterson (Portfolio, $48, 544 pages) Former University of Toronto psychology professor and international darling of the Right Jordan Peterson’s fourth book, We Who Wrestle with God seems to have landed with a thud after two bestselling self-help books. The massive tome is an exegesis on Genesis, Exodus, and [...]
Let me start this month by introducing a new columnist, Victor Penney. His “Sporting Life” column (on page 8 this month) will look at the intersection of the world of sports and life/faith/family issues. It is a bit of an experiment but I think you might enjoy the lighter side of these serious issues (although it might not always be so light). [...]
Paul Tuns, Review: Life in the Negative World: Confronting Challenges in an Anti-Christian Culture by Aaron Renn (Zondervan, $33.50, 247 pages) Aaron Renn is a fellow at American Reformer and former research fellow at the right-of-centre Manhattan Institute for Public Policy. You might be familiar with his work if you are regularly reader of First Things, his subscription newsletter or his Substack. His [...]
Almost immediately upon becoming the Democratic candidate for president, Kamala Harris started attacking her Republican opponents, Donald Trump and JD Vance, as weird. To emphasize the difference between the Democratic ticket’s ostensible normalness and the Republicans’ alleged weirdness, she picked the mostly non-descript Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a former high school football coach. No sooner had Harris delivered the broadside that “weird” [...]