Isaiah Berlin’s The Proper Study Of Mankind

In Alexander Pope’s immortal “Essay On Man,” the poet reminds his reader of a Socratic principle: “Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; / The proper study of mankind is man.” This is Isaiah Berlin’s undertaking in The Proper Study […]

Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel

Thomas Wolfe’s literary reputation has suffered immensely in the last half-century. As a contemporary of Steinbeck, Hemingway and Faulkner, he was looked upon as a writer of great promise; his books sold well, both in North America and abroad, and […]

Amy Clampitt’s Selected Poems

Amy Clampitt was born in Iowa and raised on a farm, but the poetry collection that would bring her genius to the public’s attention, The Kingfisher (published in 1983, when she was 63 years old), draws mainly from her experiences […]

Edmund Burke’s Reflections On The Revolution In France

In one of my favorite of William Hazlitt’s essays, “On The Character Of Mr. Burke,” Hazlitt takes on his rival politician while advancing what, to my mind, is a reliable test of a person’s political character: do they acknowledge Edmund Burke […]

Theodore Dalrymple’s Our Culture, What’s Left Of It

I have lately had the pleasure of discovering Theodore Dalrymple (real name Anthony Daniels), a retired doctor turned essayist whose small but devoted following – among whom number both Thomas Sowell and Charles Murray – prize him for his unflinching portrayals […]

Richard J. Herrnstein & Charles Murray’s The Bell Curve

Twenty years ago, an experimental psychologist with a background in animal research and a political scientist famous for a scathing critique of the welfare state collaborated on a book about human intelligence and its role in structuring society. Early positive […]

E.M. Forster’s Howards End

I was recently watching a British talk show panel discuss British identity: what does it mean to be British in 2014? They concluded that British identity could not be – indeed, should not be – reduced to the old qualifiers of bowler hats […]

Susan Pinker’s The Sexual Paradox

I had the good fortune to meet Susan Pinker, Montreal-born psychologist, journalist, author and brother of Steven Pinker, at a talk she gave to promote her most recent book, and though our brief encounter didn’t get beyond pleasantries, I had […]

José Ortega y Gasset’s The Revolt Of The Masses

One of the surest measures of a book’s worth is its longevity in the public’s imagination. José Ortega y Gasset’s The Revolt Of The Masses is such a book, one whose worth has been continually reaffirmed since its serial publication in […]

Matt Ridley’s The Red Queen

A little over a decade and a half ago, I went through puberty. I still remember how instantly priorities shifted, how my care-free childhood vanished and everything in life, every insecurity and aspiration, seemed to revolve around sex. A great deal […]

William T. Vollmann’s Poor People

William T. Vollmann looks every bit the misfit, so much so that it hardly comes as a surprise to learn he was once investigated by the FBI in connection with the Unabomber murders. Add to that the fact that he doesn’t […]

Daniel Dennett’s Darwin’s Dangerous Idea

Daniel Dennett opens Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by relating how, as a child, he became intrigued by the idea of acids. He liked to imagine an acid so corrosive that nothing could long contain it; it would eat through steel and […]

Daphne Patai’s What Price Utopia?

Daphne Patai is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she specializes in Brazilian literature. I’ve come to know her, however, for her work as a critic of the politicization of education. She has written and edited books […]

Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves To Death

In one of his longest and most candid interviews, David Foster Wallace spoke of the difficulties of writing fiction for modern audiences weaned on television. It is not that we are stupider, Wallace argues, but that we have been trained […]

Mark Steyn’s After America

I might not have purchased this book except that my local bookstore was holding a fire sale and the price was too tantalizingly low to pass up on. All the same, one of the store employees encouraged me not to purchase the […]