Reviews

Hundreds of airmen and sailors—mostly young, many only teenagers, many of them civilians—under terrifying circumstances, “redeemed from the brink of disaster one of the most hazardous naval operations of the Second World War.” In expertly recounting their courage and the horrors they faced, Max Hastings has helped ensure the well-deserved immortality of this band of heroes.

Tangled shows the crucial role of bravery, independence, and self-esteem in overcoming obstacles to achieve one’s values and thus live fully.

Americans need a book that will help them better understand the values underlying our early constitutional history—and they need an authoritative and compelling intellectual voice to explain and vindicate the nation’s fundamental law. Sad to say, they will not find those here.

“One of the most extraordinary features of Ibsen’s works,” Sprinchorn writes, is the way “each play grows out of its predecessor.” By examining them in order, he draws out their weightier elements, combining an acute understanding of theater and a thorough grasp of the political, social, and artistic controversies that set the background for Ibsen’s career.

Although philosophically flawed and at times repetitive and anecdotal, The God Delusion presents interesting arguments against God and religion and generally in favor of a worldview informed by science.

Although fraudsters certainly exist on Wall Street, the vast majority of traders are honest, value driven, and focused on innovating and creating wealth.

Steele clarifies key issues in the discussion on race, showing how leftists grabbed power by claiming the moral high ground, despite their abysmal disregard for those whose lives are destroyed by their policies.

I just wanted to send a note expressing my appreciation of the book/film/TV reviews that you publish periodically. Over the past few weeks, I have been watching Anne with an “E”, but I would never even have heard of it if not for the review published in TOS.

Creating Christ provides a trove of unprecedented insights about the genesis of the modern world’s most popular religion. All interested in Christianity’s provenance would do well to read this boldly original book.

Louis Menand is a writer of great gifts, whose 2000 book The Metaphysical Club is a masterpiece of intellectual history. Unfortunately, The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War fails to recapture the magic. That’s partly because despite its bulk—880 pages—it’s curiously incomplete.