Vodka Politics: Alcohol, Autocracy, and the Secret History of the Russian State By Mark Lawrence Schrad (Oxford, 512 pages, $35) A wager on the strong and sober” was the tagline given by Russian prime minister Peter Stolypin to his sweeping land…

The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and LeftBy Yuval Levin(Basic, 296 pages, $27.99) [[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_large”,”fid”:”94162″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”480″,”style”:”float: right;”,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”308″}}]] Shortly before receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, Yuval Levin was given the unprecedented honor of seeing his…