If you want to make sense of the Presidential Election, then you should definitely pick up Doris Kearns Goodwin’s The Bully Pulpit.The Progressive Movement has been much discussed by pundits and intellectuals in the last decade. Much discussed. Suddenly the word “progressive” became chic in some circles. It became anathema in other circles This was one of the interesting phenomena generated by the Obama Presidency. I have no idea who started the wave of articles about how … [Read more...] about Looking Anew at the Progressives
Modern Society
Time to Abolish Tenure?
If you are looking for a book which describes the modern college, Naomi Schaefer Riley’s The Faculty Lounge is a good choice. The subtitle tells all: The Faculty Lounges: and Other Reasons Why You Won’t Get the College Education You Paid For. There are two problems with that title: 1) It ends in a preposition—a grammatical failing which always causes me pain, and 2) it is terribly misleading. The Book should really be called: The Faculty Lounge: Why Tenure Should Be … [Read more...] about Time to Abolish Tenure?
Madness or Mockery?
I have, for reasons unknown, a vivid memory of a media sensation from way back in 1991. About a book. But, not a conventional book by a well-known author. The book: Griffin & Sabine, by Nick Bantock. What made this book unusual was that it is a Picture Book. The story was of a correspondence between the two people in the title. Most of the correspondence is postcards, but there are a few letters. The gimmick: The right hand page is … [Read more...] about Madness or Mockery?
Conflicting Visions
A question prompted anew by Thomas Sowell’s The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy: Imagine a municipality which levied taxes in order to pay for a state-supported brothel. Think of it like a public park. Also imagine that the workers in the brothel are conscripted. Think of it like the military draft. Now imagine a society where 51% of the people think that such State Brothels are a good idea and 49% think they are morally repugnant. What should that … [Read more...] about Conflicting Visions
The College Carnival
Whenever a school year winds down, nostalgia creeps in. There is a sameness to the rhythm of college. While the individuals change, the nature of the average student doesn’t change much. Indeed, it hasn’t changed much since at least 1920. That was the year F. Scott Fitzgerald published This Side of Paradise. This novel is one of those inter-war expressions of the hopelessness of the modern age. And after a century of unbelievable change, I was shocked at how much Amory Blaine … [Read more...] about The College Carnival
Yesterday’s Fad
When it was all the rage back in 2014, I was asked and asked and asked and asked again what I thought about Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century. After a few months of the incessant question, I read it. All the way through. Every single word. I also read more reviews of it than I think I have ever read about a contemporary book. The reviews had an interesting pattern. The first wave of reviewers were the enthusiasts and the haters. Neither set had read the book … [Read more...] about Yesterday’s Fad