Arts & Culture
Arts & Culture, Ayn Rand & Objectivism
Ayn Rand’s We the Living: Back on the Silver Screen—and Better Than Ever
Robert Begley May 13, 2022
Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Duncan Scott is preparing a newly restored high-definition edition of the 1942 movie of Ayn Rand's novel, We the Living. Set during the Russian Revolution—a period that Rand witnessed firsthand—We the Living shows how a totalitarian state makes human life impossible.
Arts & Culture
John Williams’s ‘Love Affair with Orchestra’ Continues
Jon Hersey May 10, 2022
No single recording could exhaustively capture even just the highlights of Williams’s career, spanning six decades, but Deutsche Grammophon’s latest culls a varied set of gems, from the uplifting Olympic theme, to the sinister sounds of Close Encounters, to anthems from the beloved Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars franchises.
Arts & Culture, History, Reviews
The Sinner and the Saint: Dostoevsky and the Gentleman Murderer Who Inspired a Masterpiece by Kevin Birmingham
Timothy Sandefur March 24, 2022
Despite occasional oversights, Kevin Birmingham's The Sinner and the Saint: Dostoevsky and the Gentleman Murderer Who Inspired a Masterpiece offers a dramatic and enlightening introduction to the complicated context in which one of literature’s greatest and most horrifying novels was created.
Arts & Culture, Reviews
3 Idiots, Written and Directed by Rajkumar Hirani
Clytze Sun March 11, 2022
3 Idiots (2009), a Hindi-language coming-of-age film, follows the story of three engineering students at one of the top engineering universities in India. It focuses on the happiness a man can achieve when he lives for himself.
Arts & Culture, Good Living
Eight Poems for the Love of Nature
Various Authors February 21, 2022
Including works by A. A. Milne, Thomas Paine, A. E. Housman, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Robert Frost, Edward Rowland Sill, Jon Hersey, and William Brighty Rands.
Arts & Culture, Reviews
The Book of Boba Fett, Created by Jon Favreau
Thomas Walker-Werth February 18, 2022
Star Wars is great for two principal reasons: A clear, moving story about good triumphing over evil; and likable, interesting characters. Unfortunately, The Book of Boba Fett falls short in both regards.
Arts & Culture, Biographies
Henry Kitchell Webster’s Life-Loving, Pro-Business Fiction
Dianne Durante December 22, 2021
Henry Kitchell Webster's novels have charming, intelligent characters who pursue their goals in unusual ways. They show that there’s no good reason “why a serious novel should not be a good story."
Arts & Culture, Reviews
Louis Sullivan’s Idea by Tim Samuelson and Chris Ware
Timothy Sandefur December 16, 2021
Louis H. Sullivan's buildings are the remaining monuments to a genius who gave voice, as no artist had ever done before, to the distinctive achievement of the modern age: the skyscraper. Hopefully, books such as this will help ensure that this master builder is never forgotten.
Arts & Culture, Biographies
Leroy Anderson’s Joyful American Music
Betsy Speicher November 26, 2021
Many Leroy Anderson compositions, written more than half a century ago, have become an enduring part of both American concert and popular music. His works are joyful and have a distinctive American flavor.
Arts & Culture, Ayn Rand & Objectivism, Philosophy
Which Ayn Rand Novel to Read First
Jon Hersey November 26, 2021
Where in Rand’s corpus should a curious reader begin? As someone who’s read it all, I would say that, for most people, there’s no better place to start than with one of Rand’s major works of fiction—Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, We the Living, or Anthem—and I suspect Rand would agree.