2,045 words
Lisa Birnbach, Ed.
The Official Preppy Handbook
New York: Workman Publishing, 1980
The Official Preppy Handbook was originally published in late 1980. It spawned many imitators and at least one quasi-sequel (True Prep, 2010), as well as various updated and deluxe editions. It also helped to launch a genre of humor books that mixed faux sociology and sartorial fun. I touched on that trend a year ago in my supercilious takedown of 1984’s The Yuppie Handbook. (more…)
1,800 words
Hannes Wessels
PK van der Byl, African Statesman
Johannesburg: 30º South Publishers, 2010
If you need a useful and practical hero in the field of race politics and statecraft, you might take a good look at a colorful and headstrong eccentric named Pieter Kenyon Fleming-Voltelyn van der Byl (1923-1999).
When it comes to the story of independent Rhodesia, most people only remember Prime Minister Ian Douglas Smith. (more…)
2,272 words
Jessie Daniels
Nice White Ladies: The Truth about White Supremacy, Our Role in It, and How We Can Help Dismantle It
New York: Seal Press, 2021
Having cash flow problems? Trouble making ends meet? Perhaps you should try selling your children into prostitution. It’s easy, it’s profitable, and many Progressive people are doing it! As an added bonus, you will be helping to dismantle “White Supremacy.” (more…)
674 words
Commander John Irving, Royal Navy
Royal Navalese: A Glossary of Fo’csle Language
London: Focal Point Publications, 2020 (originally published 1946)
Somebody recently gifted me with this trim, entertaining little book. Perhaps because of the season, I immediately identified it as one of that peculiar species of “Christmas books”: small volumes, usually elegantly designed, illustrated with line drawings, and often found stacked near the bookseller’s cash register in December. (more…)
Kdo zabil Orwella? Nejstudenější člověk, „Bába“ Gow?
1.871 slov
English original here
Jistá pověst tradovaná o smrti George Orwella se už posledních více než 20 let usilovně snaží prodrat na povrch hlavního proudu. Pokud vím, nebyla zatím nikde otištěna, což je poněkud zvláštní, protože všechny její hlavní součásti jsou už dlouho veřejně dostupné a známé: v životopisech, memoárech i novinových titulcích. Kdokoliv, tedy skoro kdokoliv, koho celá věc zajímá, si dávno mohl dát dvě a dvě dohromady. (more…)
Rolleiflex selfie of Philip Larkin and Monica Jones in Paignton, Devon, circa 1957. (From Andrew Motion’s Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life, 1993.)
1,575 words
The writer Philip Larkin (1922-1985) was born on August 9, 1922, and this essay is part of a commemoration of his centenary. — Ed.
He’s been dead for 37 years, but the Philip Larkin literary industry keeps burbling along, fueled by a seemingly inexhaustible supply of titillating tales, spicy correspondence, and uncollected reviews, diary scraps, and photographs. (more…)
2,303 words
The following is a commemoration for Willis A. Carto, who was born 96 years ago today.
About a year ago I stumbled across the online Willis A. Carto correspondence archive. It’s a source of never-ending delight. (more…)
Lothrop Stoddard
1,746 words
This review is published in commemoration of Lothrop Stoddard’s 139th birthday. Stoddard has often been written about and referenced at Counter-Currents; to see these other essays, click on his tag.
Lothrop Stoddard
Master of Manhattan: The Life of Richard Croker
New York/Toronto: Longmans, Green and Co., 1931
Our subject today is “The Lighter Side of . . . Lothrop Stoddard.” I’ll be focusing mostly on the delightful Master of Manhattan, his 1931 biography of Tammany Hall boss Richard Welstead Croker. (more…)
Céline . . . and Houellebecq.
1,511 words
This essay is being published today to commemorate Céline’s 128th birthday. You can find all of Counter-Currents’ resources on Céline here.
You don’t have to dig too deep through the past two decades of reviews to find that the French novelist-critic Michel Houellebecq is often compared to the late Louis-Ferdinand Céline. (more…)
2,007 words
Male Supremacism in the United States:
From Patriarchal Traditionalism to Misogynist Incels and the Alt-Right
Series: Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right
Emily K. Carian, Alex DiBranco, Chelsea Ebin (Editors)
Abingdon (Oxon) & New York: Routledge, 2022
Despite its beguiling title and subtitle, I am sorry to report that this new book from Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right is a very sloppy doggy’s dinner. (more…)
2,653 words
Paul Fussell
Class: A Guide Through the American Class System
New York: Summit Books, 1983 (first edition; many since)
Written in 1980-82 and published in 1983, Paul Fussell’s Class: A Guide Through the American Status System is one of those rare books that most literate people seem to have heard of, say they want to read if they haven’t, and have fierce opinions about whether they’ve read it or not. I see this last aspect frequently on social media. (more…)
1,659 words
Standardbearers: British Roots of the New Right
Edited by Jonathan Bowden, Eddy Butler, and Adrian Davies.
With a Foreword by Professor Antony Flew
Beckenham, Kent: The Bloomsbury Forum, 1999
Somewhere between the “hug-a-hoodie” Toryism of David Cameron’s Conservatives, and those far-right parties considered beyond the pale, is believed to lie a broad “respectable” middle ground of British nationalist politics. (more…)