The World: A Family History By Simon Sebag Montefiore (Knopf, 1,344 pages, $45) Simon Sebag Montefiore’s book The World: A Family History, which will be released on May 16, is a catalog of moral, sexual, and political depravity, corruption, sadism,…
The Man of the Crowd: Edgar Allan Poe and the City By Scott Peeples (Princeton University Press, 224 pages, $25) The writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) spent his entire life searching for a place that he could call home. Born…
Acting Naturally: The Magic in Great Performances By David Thomson (Knopf, 288 pages, $30) Eighty-two years old this month, David Thomson has written some 50 books about the movies during the last 50 years — among them a history of…
Bob Dylan’s The Philosophy of Modern Song lured many reviewers into divining it as a sort of psychological autobiography. Dylan’s analysis offered in the opening chapter on Bobby Bare’s “Detroit City” regarding the song’s protagonist, “He’s able to manufacture a…
Body aches, chills, fatigue, dizziness, shortness of breath: for the third time since the COVID pandemic began, I’ve either got the damn thing or some other malady with very similar symptoms. It’s unpleasant, it’s uncomfortable, and, above all, it’s a…
It’s been a long year. But in the darkness spread by the many challenges our country faces, this Christmas season shines more brightly by contrast. We at The American Spectator consider ourselves blessed to share great writing that sheds light…
Faith Still Moves Mountains: Miraculous Stories of the Healing Power of Prayer By Harris Faulkner (Broadside Books, 288 pages, $29) Faith is a powerful force that enables us to transcend grief, illness, addiction, and depression. This is the central claim…
Financial journalism has achieved something close to gender equity. For every Larry Kudlow, there is a Maria Bartiromo; for every Joe Weisenthal, a Frances Coppola; and for every Andrew Ross Sorkin, a Gretchen Morgenson. How did that happen? The full story…
G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century By Beverly Gage (Viking, 864 pages, $45) J. Edgar Hoover held on to power for too long. From 1924 until his death in 1972, during the administrations of eight…
I’ve always been of two minds about Quentin Tarantino. His movies parody and pay tribute to genres, both literary and cinematic, that have never really been my thing. Pulp Fiction (1994) was intended to be a celluloid take on the…
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