The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost Vision by Erika Bachiochi (Notre Dame Press, $47.95, 422 pages) Emma Castellino Review Well into the twentieth century, the “founding mothers” of women’s rights were pro-marriage, pro-motherhood, and pro-life. The modern feminist movement, conversely, not only no longer subscribes to these views, but actively works against them pro forma. What happened? In The Rights of [...]
Emma Castellino Review: Before Austen Comes Aesop: The Children’s Great Books and How to Experience Them by Cheri Blomquist (Ignatius Press, $23.95, 272 pages) “Nobody else understands it, but I know that William Shakespeare was a black woman.” This quote, taken from an address Maya Angelou gave in 1977 (The Role of Art in Life), sums up the perfect vitality of the [...]
Paul Tuns Review: American Happiness and Discontents: The Unruly Torrent 2008-2020 by George F. Will (Hachette, $40, 505 pages) More than any person I do not know, the columnist George F. Will influenced me: he shaped my conservatism and sparked my interest in a career in writing. I look forward to each of his twice weekly columns but even more so his [...]
Anne Hendershott (Crisis Publications, $19 USD, 291 pages) Anne Hendershott’s volume is a much-needed and overdue examination of the cultural and political implications of envy. A culture of covetousness is promoted by advertisers hocking goods and politicians seeking voters, and most of us do not understand that it is one of the deadly sins being evoked when these salesmen are operating. Envy [...]
Paul Tuns - Review Commerce and Manners in Edmund Burke’s Political Economy Gregory M. Collins (Cambridge, $56.95, 578 pages) Edmund Burke the statesman is best known for something he likely never said: “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” There is no record of the Dublin-born statesman saying it, but it sounds like something he [...]
Paul Tuns - Review What it Means to be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics O. Carter Snead (Harvard, $51.95, 321 pages) The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to the Sexual Revolution Carl R. Trueman (Crossway, $46.99, 432 pages) There were a pair of books published recently that I was surprised were not reviewed [...]
Fighting for Life: Becoming a Force for Change in a Wounded World Lila Rose (Thomas Nelson, $33.50, 223 pages) Lila Rose started Live Action as a teenager and has since become one of the most influential pro-lifers in the United States. In her autobiography, Fighting for Life, she not only relates the dramatic stories that have propelled her to become one of [...]
Christina Tuns - Review Mom Genes Inside the New Science of Our Ancient Maternal Instinct By Abigail Tucker (Gallery Books, $37, 315 pages) When the book Mom Genes Inside the New Science of Our Ancient Maternal Instinct by Abigail Tucker, was given to me my first response was there is no way I am up for or want to read book that is [...]
Rick McGinnis There’s an uncommon moment recalled in Norman Lebrecht’s bitter but celebratory 2007 book The Life and Death of Classical Music where the classical music industry, such as it had existed for just over a century, finally died. It was a dinner in a London restaurant in December of 2004, a small retirement party given for Peter Alward, the head of [...]
The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, A Thousand Women, and the Consequences of Having -- or Being Denied -- An Abortion Diana Greene Foster (Scribner, $36, 360 pages) Make no mistake that the landmark “Turnaway Study” -- a data-driven examination of what happens to women who cannot get abortions -- comes from an explicitly pro-abortion point of view. The comparative study of women [...]
Emma Castellino - Review Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson (Random House, $39.95, 432 pages) In the book of Numbers, the Israelites are complaining in the desert, so God sends snakes to bite them. Moses directs them to tie a bronze snake to a post in the middle of their camp. If you are bitten and look at [...]
Russell E. Kuykendall World View Primer A generation or two ago, a broadly shared faith or at least a generally held perspective on how we should then live could be assumed, answering the ancient Greeks’ three ultimate questions, plus one more: Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? And, a fourth: Who loves me? Today, answers to [...]
Grace Olmstead, a native of rural Idaho, now lives in Washington D.C., with her husband and three children. In Uprooted she examines the so-called brain drain in which those who can, leave behind the limited opportunities of home in favour of America’s urban centers. Those left behind in communities like Emmett, Idaho, are increasingly older, while the younger folks struggle to make [...]
By Paul Tuns - Review Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell Jason L. Riley (Basic Books, $38, 290 pages) I mentioned in my From the Editor’s Desk column that I greatly admired columnist George F. Will (still do). Another columnist I greatly admire and learn from is Thomas Sowell. I have more than 30 of his books on my shelves and have watched [...]
I was humbled to be asked to recommend three books to pro-lifers which I believe to be essential reading and together provide a great foundation for all the dear unwitting souls that God throws into the wild mix of individuals who have and will constitute what is commonly described as the pro-life movement in Canada, who have joined the fight to protect [...]