History
Ayn Rand & Objectivism, History, Reviews
What Went Right? An Objectivist Theory of History by Robert Tracinski
Jon Hersey September 8, 2022
“Who sets the tone of a culture?,” asked Ayn Rand. “A small handful of men: the philosophers.” According to Robert Tracinski, many of Rand’s followers have taken this to mean that efforts toward a better future should focus on university humanities departments. But, in his latest book, Tracinski argues that this is only part of the story.
Ayn Rand & Objectivism, Biographies, History
How Isabel Paterson Helped Ayn Rand Find Atlantis
Timothy Sandefur August 19, 2022
Isabel Paterson considered herself the last survivor of a golden age. But she helped bequeath to us a vision of that free world—and not just a vision, but something more precious: a rational intellectual argument for it.
History, Politics & Rights, Reviews
Notes on the State of Virginia: An Annotated Edition, by Robert Pierce Forbes
Timothy Sandefur August 19, 2022
Robert Pierce Forbes’s painstaking research into the writing and revision of Notes on the State of Virginia is impressive and valuable. But his conjectures about Thomas Jefferson’s goals in writing those portions of the book that still stain the great man’s reputation only perpetuate the mysteries.
Arts & Culture, History, Reviews
Straight Line Crazy by David Hare
Thomas Walker-Werth June 7, 2022
Despite some faults, Straight Line Crazy does an excellent job of bringing to modern audiences the harsh reality of how governments, even in wealthy, developed countries, can ride roughshod over people’s rights, rich and poor alike.
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.
History, Philosophy
Heroes and Villains in Western Philosophy
Andrew Bernstein February 21, 2022
The heroes of philosophy from Thales to Rand—and preeminently Aristotle—have provided us with a priceless gift. In sundry forms, heroes support human life. Nowhere is this truth more powerful than with the heroes of philosophy.
Economics, History, Reviews
The Financial Programs of Alexander Hamilton, by a Farmer’s Daughter by Dianne L. Durante
Raymond C. Niles October 22, 2021
Despite some of Hamilton’s surprising errors, such as his support for mercantilism, his programs prevented the new republic from floundering, as Dianne Durante has shown. Hamilton is worthy of our admiration, and so is Dr. Durante for having done such a fine job of bringing Hamilton and his policies to life.
History, Politics & Rights
Happy Nonindigenous Peoples' Day!
Julian Markowitz October 7, 2021
Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebrates the imagined virtue of staying where you are born. Explorers’ Day would celebrate the very real virtues of investigating the world, discovering new places and possibilities, and taking the bold steps necessary to improve human life.
History, Politics & Rights, Reviews
A Profile of Hong Kong by Bruce Herschensohn
Timothy Sandefur September 17, 2021
Written in the final days of his life, as Herschensohn learned of the arrests of brave friends, A Profile of Hong Kong was left unfinished, and it ends on a tragic note, with a run-on sentence that reads like a wail of grief.
History, Philosophy
The Evil of Judaism and the Goodness of Jews
Andrew Bernstein August 25, 2021
Jews have been irrationally blamed for many crimes. In reality, their “sin” was to birth the first faith-based, supernatural religion to deeply influence Western history.