TAS Live
Books for Christmas
From our annual Christmas issue, a sampling of Holiday gift suggestions from distinguished readers and writers, including Douglas Brinkley, Ann Coulter, Milton Friedman, Coach Gibbs, and Donald Trump.
(Page 8 of 8)
Finally, let me do justice to a book we should have reviewed months ago. Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House, edited by James Taranto and Leonard Leo. It is a superb collection of essays on American presidents by some splendid taxonomists. The professor who presided over my Ph.D. pursuit and civilized my prose, Robert H. Ferrell, is there with a fine essay on Herbert Hoover. My favorite lawyer and adviser to the Bait Shop Junta, Ted Olson, writes scintillatingly on William Howard Taft. Harvey Mansfield and Paul Gigot are memorable on their subjects, Ronald Reagan and George I, respectively. There are other essays that particularly fetched me, Paul Johnson on a certain randy ex-governor, for instance. The great Bob Bartley has a sapient essay on leadership, and he certainly demonstrated that capacity in helping us revitalize AmSpec. But the writer I want to pay special homage to is James Taranto. His essay on leadership is very good but, more importantly, let me state it here: he is the most original journalistic voice of his generation, as can be seen daily on his “Best of the Web Today” at the Wall Street Journal’s OpinionJournal.com.
Merry Christmas!
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the editor in chief of The American Spectator.
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