See further information on our selections here Download a PDF of this list here Dr. Brian Mattson Life, Liberty, & The Pursuit of Happiness: Ten Years of the Claremont Review of Books, Charles Kesler and John B. Kienker, eds. (Rowman & Littlefield, 2012) Why Us? How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves, James Le Fanu (Vintage, 2009) The Disenchantment of Secular Discourse, Steven D. Smith (Harvard, 2010) The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, … [Read more...]
The Twenty Books that Belong on Everyone’s Reading List
December 13, 2012 By
My friend, Brian Kennedy, President of the Claremont Institute, recently reminded me of Clarence Thomas's claim in his autobiography that he essentially had to teach himself conservatism via book-reading after he had completed college. For Thomas, he had been denied access to the masters in his "higher" education, and after years of reading the Claremont Review of Books, Thomas took it upon himself to read, and read, and read. The Supreme Court does not have a more Constitutionally thoughtful … [Read more...]
Exile from Wall Street a Disappointment
June 14, 2012 By
I am trying to diligently finish up my multi-year project of reading and reviewing every noteworthy book pertaining to the great financial crisis of 2008. I have been quite behind in a lot of the reading I have assigned myself in this project (though am getting caught up), and remain quite behind in many of the reviews that need to be written. In the interest of moving this project forward, I recently completed several books in a week, choosing to focus on a few that I thought would be … [Read more...]
When a Priest Understands Economics Better than an Ivy League Professor
June 5, 2012 By
Father Robert Sirico does not count as any ordinary Priest ... He is truly a remarkable man of God, evidenced by his care for his parish over many years, and visible in his demeanor, warmth, spirit, and character. I am blessed to call him a friend, and equally blessed to have him as a spiritual and intellectual influence in my life. When I found out that he was doing an easy-to-read apologetic for the free market through Regnery, I knew that he would be successful at popularizing the message … [Read more...]
The Most Important Book of 2012 is Out
June 4, 2012 By
I do not know if the title of this review is going to prove to be too melodramatic or not. I doubt it. I am doing my best to only take breaks from my financial crisis book review series for really special exceptions, but the problem is that my reading list has been overwhelmed with really special exceptions. Charles Murray, author of the absolute must-reads Losing Ground and The Bell Curve has done it again, only this time, he has truly out-done himself. The underlying theses in the … [Read more...]
