The New Republic

by Linda Hirshman Hallelujah! Real book reviews. Now that I am only writing and thus able to read some stuff outside my field, I am marooned between the utter garbage commercial publishers apparently think is all the general public will buy and the never-met-a-note-card-I-didn't-like/jargon-filled academic writing I know none of us would ever indulge in. I, too, volunteer to review, short or long. READ MORE >>

by Steven Pinker I second the concerns of Linda Hirshman and Eric Rauchway. The justification for a new book review forum is not just to create something that's fun to read but a vehicle with a responsibility to the country's intellectual culture. In that regard it should take steps to avoid some of the shortcomings of NYRB. NYRB has published some outstanding pieces, but its READ MORE >>

The Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations at Harvard University is Joseph Nye. He is one of those facile meliorists who seems to believe that any and all international crises can be solved with a decent measure of good will and a bit of ingenuity. After all, his last book was Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, A Twelve Step Method. No, I'm only kidding. There's no twelve step anything in Nye's book. But ... READ MORE >>

Everyone is writing about Russia these days. READ MORE >>

by Jeffrey Herf Our country and our culture badly need a new weekly review of books. Currently, most of our major book reviews are failing to inform a non-specialist but sophisticated audience about American scholarship. The American Association of University Presses estimates that the 95 university presses in this country publish about 10,000 books a year. The New York Times Book Review, not to mention the book reviews at The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Wall Street Journal devote a tiny fraction of their reviews to these works of READ MORE >>

by David A. Bell Three cheers to Jeff Herf for his call for an American Review of Books. Like other OU contributors, I couldn't agree more about the crying need in American intellectual life for a magazine of this sort. READ MORE >>

Otto Frank, the father of Anne Frank, was a truly tragic figure. He survived the war from whose particularly Jewish ravages he tried to save his family, and became a commentator and corrective about the personal aspects of an overwhelming event. His daughter also lived on in a certain sense, as the emblematic death of the more than one and one half million Jewish children who perished in the catastrophe that wiped away more than six million of Anne's people. READ MORE >>

The New York Times today has an interesting article about the rise of moderate Democrat female legislators. Throughout the country, women legislators are gaining parity with men, and in Minnesota, Democratic security moms swept three traditionally Republican seats. Not surprisingly, Old Guard feminists are not certain how to feel about this. READ MORE >>

by Franklin Foer READ MORE >>

A proposed bill in the Texas legislature known as the "Topless Tax" would tax patrons a $5 cover charge to enter strip clubs. The cover charge would then go directly into sexual-assault prevention and counseling services. This makes a certain amount of sense to me. READ MORE >>