Month: March 2022

Home 2022 March
Germany, Harbinger of the Abyss
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Germany, Harbinger of the Abyss

Finis Germania is a posthumous collection of melancholy writing by German ecologist and sometime academic Rolf Peter Sieferle, who took his own life in despair in 2016. Sieferle regreted the disappearance of a recognizably Western civilization and . . . Subscribers Only Subscribe now to access the full article and gain access to other exclusive...

Books in Brief: 3/1/2022
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Books in Brief: 3/1/2022

Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape, by Cal Flyn (Viking; 384 pp., $27.00). In our era of ecological angst, many are . . . Subscribers Only Subscribe now to access the full article and gain access to other exclusive features. Already a subscriber? Sign in here

Snow Princess Does Beijing
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Snow Princess Does Beijing

Poor Gu Ailing, or, as we call her here in the country of her birth, Eileen Gu. She claims to have jumped ship to join the Chinese team for this year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing because she hoped to inspire young athletes on both sides of the Pacific, and . . . Subscribers Only Subscribe...

Abortion Letters
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Abortion Letters

I would like to add three comments about Chronicles Editor Paul Gottfried’s acute analysis of America’s historical conflicts over abortion (“Feminism Left and Right Drove America’s Permissive Abortion Laws . . . Subscribers Only Subscribe now to access the full article and gain access to other exclusive features. Already a subscriber? Sign in here

What We Are Reading: 3/1/2022
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What We Are Reading: 3/1/2022

This history of World War II should occupy an eminent position in any collection of studies on that conflict; it is a comprehensive treatment of its subject that stands head-and-shoulders above most of the stream of books issued since its publication in 1989 . . . Subscribers Only Subscribe now to access the full article and gain...

Trans Tyranny in Public Schools
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Trans Tyranny in Public Schools

Schools across the country have adopted a controversial policy of hiding the LGBT statuses of students from their parents. Sold to the public as an effort to protect children from abuse, the policy effectively circumvents parental consent and notification about their children’s health, safety, and well-being.   One . . . Subscribers Only Subscribe now...

War Without End, Amen
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War Without End, Amen

I have often complained that the self-styled progressive of our time never tells us where he wants to go. Progress implies a destination, and rest—sweet and blessed rest—once you have arrived. But that would imply a natural human order to return to, or to attain. And then . . . Subscribers Only Subscribe now to...

Middle Kingdom Rising
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Middle Kingdom Rising

In 1935 the Nazi regime was two years old, fully consolidated at home, and increasingly assertive abroad. It enacted the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws and announced that Germany would start a massive rearmament program, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Meanwhile, Britain and France were focused on condemning Mussolini . . . Subscribers Only Subscribe...

The Not-So-Great Train Robbery
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The Not-So-Great Train Robbery

Late author Michael Crichton in 1975 wrote one of his best novels, The Great Train Robbery. Set in England in the 1850s, it is a roman à clef that tells the story of . . . Subscribers Only Subscribe now to access the full article and gain access to other exclusive features. Already a subscriber?...

The Struggle for the Soul of the Supreme Court
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The Struggle for the Soul of the Supreme Court

During Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign for president, when his fortunes were at their nadir, Joe Biden promised that he would nominate the first black woman to the United States Supreme Court. He reportedly made this pledge to James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the powerful African-American congressman, in return . . . Subscribers Only Subscribe now to access...

Genes vs. Culture
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Genes vs. Culture

In the current American definition of democracy, all adult citizens should have the right to vote and otherwise participate in politics. Earlier exclusions of women or nonwhites have been disallowed. Similar rules are supposed to apply to preferred positions in civil society. In a meritocracy, it has been believed until . . . Subscribers Only...

Remembering Walter E. Williams
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Remembering Walter E. Williams

Addressing a Boston anti-slavery audience in 1865, abolitionist Frederick Douglass asked, “What shall we do with the Negro?” The answer he provided was a favorite of the conservative economist Walter E . . . Subscribers Only Subscribe now to access the full article and gain access to other exclusive features. Already a subscriber? Sign in...

Death Becomes Bond
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Death Becomes Bond

No Time to Die Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga ◆ Written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Cary Joji Fukunaga ◆ Produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ◆ Distributed by Universal Pictures   The James Bond film series that began in . . . Subscribers Only Subscribe now to access the full article and gain access to other...

South Africa’s Fortresses of Fear
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South Africa’s Fortresses of Fear

Leonard Pillay’s 9mm pistol hasn’t left his side since July 9 of last year. “Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration,” the middle-aged mechanic admitted in an interview. “I haven’t got it on me when I sleep. But I promise you, it’s never far . . . Subscribers Only Subscribe now to access the full...

To Have and to Hold
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To Have and to Hold

Mine! How . . . Subscribers Only Subscribe now to access the full article and gain access to other exclusive features. Already a subscriber? Sign in here

How Republican Supreme Court Justices Gave Us Affirmative Action
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How Republican Supreme Court Justices Gave Us Affirmative Action

A Dubious Expediency: How Race Preferences Damage Higher Education   ed. by Gail Heriot and Maimon Schwarzchild  Encounter Books 336 pp., $28.99   Scholars increasingly treat the issue of race with . . . Subscribers Only Subscribe now to access the full article and gain access to other exclusive features. Already a subscriber? Sign in here

The Mental Health Alibi
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The Mental Health Alibi

Like a strange melody that keeps playing in my ear are four letters, PTSD, which seem increasingly to afflict American criminals. I suppose some shrink invented post-traumatic stress disorder; then ambulance-chasing lawyers picked it up, and finally the criminals themselves have discovered it. It is the quickest get . . . Subscribers Only Subscribe now...

Labor Betrayed by the Progressive Left
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Labor Betrayed by the Progressive Left

The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America by Gabriel Winant Harvard University Press 368 pp., $35.00 Once upon a time, there were academic historians on whom the public could rely for help in accurately understanding the world in which we live. Scholars such as Samuel Eliot...

Winning the War Against War
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Winning the War Against War

One recent morning an opinion piece by Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post arrived unbidden in my email inbox.   “Should Putin act, it would arguably be the . . . Subscribers Only Subscribe now to access the full article and gain access to other exclusive features. Already a subscriber? Sign in here