Reviews

Cheerful songs, witty writing, benevolent humor, and contagious optimism make Phineas and Ferb a great work of soul-fueling art, not only for children but for adults as well. Its brilliant optimism and reality-first approach make every episode a delight.

Oedipus the King has been considered a masterpiece for two and a half millennia. No less a luminary than Aristotle called it the ideal tragedy. But today’s readers are often disturbed by its apparent injustice. How is it fair that the gods consign Oedipus—a genuine hero who strives to avoid committing the sins for which he is damned—to such an awful fate?

Margaret Thatcher is one of the most controversial figures in modern history. Some consider her to have been a cruel, heartless villain who destroyed jobs and livelihoods, whereas others revere her as a valiant defender of liberty and the free market who saved her country’s economy.

Root’s book provides a thoroughly researched and readable introduction to the arguments that formed the basis of what has rightly been called the “refounding” of the United States a century and a half ago—and that remain relevant today.

Wonder Woman 1984 is a dark film that reflects writer/director Patty Jenkins’s sense of life and her confusions concerning morality and capitalism.

If you have a youthful soul or are a parent looking for the rare story that shows that heroism is not inborn or altruistic but the result of one’s choices and rational values, Hercules belongs on your watchlist.

Far from a history of liberty, de Dijn’s book is a conscious effort to undermine that concept and to substitute in its place what she calls a “democratic conception of freedom,” which, in principle, amounts to collective control over every aspect of individual behavior.

For those wanting to see the epitome of determination and willpower in action, few stories provide such a visceral experience as The Revenant.

Markovits’s reliance on loaded language is a good sign that his argument cannot stand—pardon the pun—on its own merits.

Chernobyl explores the reasons for a monumental catastrophe and illustrates how it was magnified by the evasion and denial of those in charge.