1,365 words
Colleen Doody
Detroit’s Cold War: The Origins of Postwar Conservatism
Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2013
In 1945, with the exception of the United States, Canada, and a few other places, the civilized world was in ruins. While the industrial centers of the United States were not burned-out husks pocked with bomb craters, the economy was not well-functioning. There was inflation and a shortage of consumer goods. (more…)
1,677 words
Barbara F. Walter
How Civil Wars Start: and How to Stop Them
New York: Random House, 2022
Barbara F. Walter is a Professor of Political Science at the School of Global Policy and Strategy as well as an Adjunct Professor at UC San Diego. She is also an expert in civil wars and how they start. In her recently-published book, How Civil Wars Start, she makes the case that the United States is headed towards civil war. (more…)
5,456 words
Paul Gottfried, editor
The Vanishing Tradition: Perspectives on American Conservatism
DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2020
The Vanishing Tradition is an anthology edited by Paul Gottfried, and owing to its structure, a proper review is not really possible. Rather, I will individually summarize and comment on each contribution to the anthology. (more…)
2,807 words
One of the smartest moves I ever made was becoming a “cord cutter.” Aside from the financial benefit, it has served to liberate my mind from the clutter of contemporary pop culture and media propaganda. Nevertheless, I occasionally indulge in streaming old movies, classics, whenever I can find them. (more…)
1,310 words
Paul M. Weyrich & William S. Lind
The Next Conservatism: Paul Weyrich’s Last Testament
South Bend, Indiana: St. Augustine’s Press, 2009
Paul Weyrich (1942 — 2008) was a profoundly influential conservative, dare I say, right-wing activist. He was born and raised in Wisconsin and was a Catholic who rejected the Vatican II reforms. His last book before his death is called The Next Conservatism. It was published in 2009, (more…)
Detroit today
3,936 words
Much ink has been spilled on the decline of Detroit, once nicknamed the “Paris of the West.” Conservatives credit its failures to Democratic leadership while Leftists of all flavors conclude it’s Big Racism: America’s largest industry. (more…)
4,134 words
We live an age where no one wants to be white if they can help it. That’s why you have honkies like Robert “Beto” O’Rourke pretending be Hispanic, Shaun King pretending to be black, and Elizabeth Warren pretending to be Native American. But it was not so long ago when the opposite was true, and it was non-whites who, if possible, tried to pass themselves off as whites. Imitation of Life is a movie about the latter. (more…)
1,519 words
The New York Times has undertaken a “1619 Project” designed to place “the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the center of the national narrative.” In other words, more of the same. While the Times presents the usual fairy tales about put-upon yet angelic blacks being oppressed by malevolent whites, at least one of our thinkers would agree that blacks have a central place in American history. (more…)
Harry Truman announcing the Democratic Party’s commitment to “civil rights” at the 1948 convention, after the party’s leadership realized they didn’t need the South’s support to pursue their agenda.
3,770 words
Historians puzzle over how the French Revolution happened. How did a powerful monarchy in a powerful nation fall apart and succumb to a radical government that drenched Paris in blood and turned the world’s most economically valuable colony, San Domingo, into the jungle that is today’s Haiti? There are many reasons, of course: (more…)
2,135 words
Elizabeth Gillespie McRae
Mothers of Massive Resistance: White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy
New York: Oxford University Press, 2018
It is unlikely a book titled Mothers of Massive Resistance would have been published at all except for the fact that white women voted against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election in enough numbers to sink her election chances. (more…)
2,425 words
Stephanie R. Rolph
Resisting Equality: The Citizens’ Council, 1954–1989
Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2018
The definitive book on the “civil rights” movement remains to be written, but Stephanie Rolph, a Professor (and a privileged “Becky,” no matter what she believes) at Mississippi’s Millsaps College has provided a solid reference for such a book. (more…)
2,619 words
Steven Levingston
Kennedy and King: The President, the Pastor, and the Battle Over Civil Rights
New York: Hachette, 2017
To borrow from the wit of Edward Gibbon:
If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world, during which the white race in North America was most foolish and short sighted regarding managing the non-white races in their midst, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the second term of Eisenhower to the accession of Nixon.