Religious Liberty and the American Founding: Natural Rights and the Original Meaning of the First Amendment Religion Classes Vincent Philip Muñoz (University of Chicago Press, $41 pb, 334 pages) Notre Dame professor of law Vincent Philip Muñoz thoroughly examines the original meaning of the religion clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as understood through the debates at America’s founding, [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements There’s an evergreen appeal to books about the world going to hell. There might be better or worse times to tell a story about civilization falling apart – the ‘30s and ‘70s were ripe for it; the ‘60s and ‘90s not so much. We’re in one of those doomsaying boom times again. I [...]
Angelica Vecchiato: Glorious and Free By Derek Sloan (Sloan Publishing Inc., $38.80, 270 pages) Since Derek Sloan was kicked out of Conservative Party of Canada caucus in 2021, the tales of his political career have garnered quasi-mythic proportions. In the mainstream media vernacular, the former Conservative MP turned Ontario Party leader has been condemned as a “racist” for accepting a donation from [...]
Rick McGinnis: Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements I have lost track of the number of times I’ve been watching a movie or TV show and wondered to myself if it was filmed in the first vertical shaft of a coal mine, or if I might be developing cataracts. Apparently, I’m not alone; at least three times in the last year [...]
The Abandoned Generation by Gabriele Kuby (St. Augustine’s Press, $21, 195 pages) Angelica Vecchiato, Review: In a modern world driven by individualism, where the immediate prioritization of the self has been valued over care of the other, humanity has been pulled apart at its seams—and forsaken children are the unfortunate byproduct. The young generation has been pushed to the margins of society, at best [...]
Russell E. Kuykendall, Review: No Excuses: Turning around One of Britain’s Toughest Schools by Alison Colwell (Biteback Publishing, $28, 244 pages) In her book No Excuses, Alison Colwell calls for schools that are focused on the transmission of content to students and the shaping of their character, giving students a foundation for the rest of their lives, wherever life takes them. She [...]
Religious Freedom After the Sexula Revolution: A Catholic Guide Helen M. Alvaré (Catholic University of America Press, $32.95, 243 pages): Helen M. Alvaré, the Robert A. Levy Chair in Law and Liberty at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, has written a primer, Religious Freedom After the Sexual Revolution, on how to think about a genuine freedom (freedom of religion) in [...]
Bioethics for Nurses: A Christian Moral Vision Alisha Mack and Charles Camosy (Eerdmans, $29.95, 256 pages) Alisha Mack, an assistant professor of nursing at Wesleyan University and Dr. Charles Comosey, a bioethicist and professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University, have come together to write the first bioethics book dedicated to nurses and nursing—Bioethics for Nurses: A Christian Moral Vision. [...]
Angelica Vecchiato, Review The Freedom Convoy: The Inside Story of Three Weeks that Shook the World by Andrew Lawton (Sutherland House, $21, 168 pages) The three-week sojourn of Canadian truckers on Parliament Hill shattered the record for the longest lasting convoy the world had ever seen. In sub-zero February temperatures, peace-making Canadians shocked the world, breaking from their pacifist constitution and rebelling against [...]
Michael Taube Can you name a popular Christmas movie? I’ll bet you could immediately think of a few. Your children and grandchildren could easily triple that number, too. From memorable cinematic renditions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, to timeless animated classics like A Charlie Brown Christmas and Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town, there’s a holiday treasure for just about everyone. [...]
Tearing Us Apart: How Abortion Harms Everything and Solves Nothing Ryan T. Anderson and Alexandra DeSanctis (Regnery: $38, 296 pages) Ryan T. Anderson and Alexandra DeSanctis have written the definitive book that works as both an extended critique of abortion and as an invaluable and insightful reference about its detrimental effects. The authors note in their introduction that “Abortion harms every single [...]
No Choice: The Destruction of Roe v. Wade and the Fight to Protect a Fundamental Right Becca Andrews (Public Affairs, $37, 267 pages) In No Choice, Mother Jones journalist Becca Andrews offers accounts of abortion before and during the Roe v. Wade era to argue that the battle for abortion is not merely part of a larger battle for women’s rights, but [...]
Paul Tuns, Review Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why it Matters, and What to do About It by Richard V. Reeves (Brookings, $38, 242 pages) Men Without Work: Post-Pandemic Edition by Nicholas Eberstadt (Templeton, $17, 238 pages) Richard Reeves of the liberal Brookings Institute has written an important, if at times annoying, book about the plight of boys [...]
Harold Rosenberg: A Critic’s Life by Debra Bricker Balken (University of Chicago Press, $52, 640 pages) Paul Tuns Review Harold Rosenberg was a public intellectual long before that term was coined, a leading cultural critic in the New York scene in the middle of the 20th century. Debra Bricker Balken has written the first -- and long overdue -- comprehensive biography of [...]
Broken News: Why the Media Rage Machine Divides America & How to Fight Back Chris Stirewalt (Center Street, $37, 246 pages) Chris Stirewalt, a former political editor at Fox News who lost his job for his role in prematurely (but correctly) calling Arizona for Joe Biden in 2020, is the author of a new, indispensable look at why mainstream journalism is broken. [...]