Strange things have been happening at universities of late. Actually, strange things have been happening at universities – and, in particular, their humanities departments – for some time, but the general public seems to show only periodic concern. There was, for […]
John Jeremiah Sullivan’s Pulphead
by on July 19, 2015
In his letter of resignation from Esquire magazine, Norman Mailer wrote, “Good-by now, rum friends, and best wishes. You got a good mag (like the pulp-heads say).” To the best of my knowledge, John Jeremiah Sullivan has never worked for […]
Walter Isaacson’s Kissinger
by on July 15, 2015
Few American statesmen of the 20th century are as famous or as polarizing as Henry Kissinger. The recipient of the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize has been variously described as a genius and a war criminal; the inspired architect of a […]
Arthur Koestler’s Darkness At Noon
by on June 30, 2015
The Supreme Court of the United States recently ruled in favor of gay marriage, completing a cultural revolution that seemed almost unthinkable just a decade ago, when even Democratic hopefuls like Hillary Clinton were affirming their belief in “the sanctity […]
Niall Ferguson’s Civilization
by on June 24, 2015
In a review of Howard Zinn’s wildly popular A People’s History of the United States, Thomas Sowell once quipped that, reading it, you’d have no idea what attracted so many people to America’s shores. Much the same criticism can be levelled […]
Francine Prose’s Reading Like A Writer
by on June 21, 2015
I am angry with Francine Prose. She had been on my list of “must-read” authors for months now, and just when I managed to find a copy of Reading Like A Writer in a local bookstore, she announced her dissent […]
Nicholas Wade’s A Troublesome Inheritance
by on June 11, 2015
After a twenty-year career as a staff writer for the Science section of the New York Times, Nicolas Wade published his third and most controversial book on human evolution last year, sparking the inevitable controversy that occurs every time the […]
Amos Oz’s Black Box
by on May 31, 2015
In the wake of an airplane crash, the immediate priority – after the rescuing of possible survivors – is recovery of the flight recorder, or “black box,” a small device that records, at seven second intervals, various information about the […]
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes From Underground
by on May 31, 2015
In 1849, when Fyodor Dostoevsky was approximately my age as I write this, he was arrested as a political subversive and dragged before a firing squad. The late arrival of a letter from Tsar Nicholas I interrupted the execution and commuted […]
Harold Bloom’s How To Read And Why
by on May 18, 2015
I was 14 years old when my love of Shakespeare began in earnest. It started with the opening scene of Julius Caesar, in which two tribunes, loyal to Pompey, berate a group of commoners for neglecting their work to celebrate Caesar’s latest victory. […]
Cynthia Ozick’s Heir To The Glimmering World
by on May 10, 2015
I found my copy of Cynthia Ozick’s 2004 novel Heir To The Glimmering World at a local library book sale, inconspicuously tucked between romance novels and penny dreadfuls. I had walked in with three dollars in change, enough to buy only […]
Julian Barnes’ The Sense Of An Ending
by on April 30, 2015
Later this year I will celebrate my ten-year high school reunion, and the more I reminisce with friends about days gone by, the more I realize how tenuous is my grip on the past. Names and faces have faded from […]
Christina Hoff Sommers’ The War Against Boys
by on April 25, 2015
In yet another sad commentary on the state of intellectual debate in higher education, Christina Hoff Sommers required a police escort to deliver her talk “What’s Right (And Badly Wrong) With Feminism” at Oberlin University (note, the link is from […]
Samuel P. Huntington’s The Clash Of Civilizations
by on April 21, 2015
In 1992, Samuel P. Huntington published an article in Foreign Affairs that sparked a national debate. Its title was “The Clash of Civilizations,” and it was largely formulated in response to a thesis put forward by Huntington’s former student, Francis […]
William H. Gass’ In The Heart Of The Heart Of The Country
by on March 31, 2015
William H. Gass’ second published work contains much of his earliest writing, including the short story “The Pedersen Kid,” which Gass tells us took seven years to find a publisher. No doubt that has something to do with the complexity […]