Theory January/February 2019 Capsule Review Paywall-Free The Ideas That Made America: A Brief History Ratner-Rosenhagen offers a brisk walk through the American intellectual tradition, from New England Puritanism to modern pragmatism. Walter Russell Mead
U.S. Foreign Policy January/February 2019 Capsule Review Paywall-Free Grand Improvisation: America Confronts the British Superpower, 1945–1957 Leebaert’s history of the U.S.-British relationship from V-E Day to the aftermath of the 1956 Suez crisis highlights attacks the view that the postwar period saw a... Walter Russell Mead
Middle East January/February 2019 Capsule Review Paywall-Free Lords of the Desert: The Battle Between the United States and Great Britain for Supremacy in the Modern Middle East This is a gripping story, and Barr, a gifted narrative historian, tells it well, casting light on both the history of the U.S. presence in the modern Middle East and... Walter Russell Mead
Politics & Society January/February 2019 Capsule Review Paywall-Free Reconstruction: A Concise History Guelzo offers a concise, clear, and temperate account of one of the most complex periods in U.S. history. Walter Russell Mead
Trump Administration January/February 2019 Capsule Review Paywall-Free Fear: Trump in the White House The latest of Woodward’s 12 books of instant history based on insider access to the White House spotlights the struggles of the often dysfunctional Trump administration. Walter Russell Mead
Economics November/December 2018 Capsule Review Paywall-Free Tailspin: The People and Forces Behind America’s Fifty-Year Fall—and Those Fighting to Reverse It Brill blends journalism and history to tell a complex but vital story: how the stable world of postwar U.S. capitalism transformed into the volatile and often ruthless... Walter Russell Mead
U.S. Foreign Policy November/December 2018 Capsule Review Paywall-Free Our American Israel: The Story of an Entangled Alliance Kaplan’s perspective as a scholar of American studies provides the key insight of this book: that the United States’ affinity for Israel has less to do with American... Walter Russell Mead
Politics & Society November/December 2018 Capsule Review Paywall-Free The Rise of Andrew Jackson: Myth, Manipulation, and the Making of Modern Politics In this detailed and diverting book, the Heidlers look at the political and media machinery that Andrew Jackson’s core supporters erected to assist his presidential... Walter Russell Mead
Politics & Society November/December 2018 Capsule Review Paywall-Free Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations Chua argues on the basis of psychological research that humans are hard-wired to prefer members of their own tribe and to regard outsiders with suspicion. Walter Russell Mead
Race & Ethnicity November/December 2018 Capsule Review Paywall-Free No Property in Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding Was the U.S. Constitution, as the South Carolinian states-man John C. Calhoun believed, a pro-slavery document, or did it, as President Abraham Lincoln argued, deny... Walter Russell Mead
Law & Institutions September/October 2018 Capsule Review Paywall-Free A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership In Comey’s own telling, he was an honest but unlucky man of old-fashioned principles who was forced to make fast decisions in a hyperpartisan atmosphere. Walter Russell Mead
U.S. Foreign Policy September/October 2018 Capsule Review Paywall-Free War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence Material for several first-rate books is scattered throughout the pages of War on Peace; Farrow will be heard from again. Walter Russell Mead
Public Opinion September/October 2018 Capsule Review Paywall-Free The Great Alignment: Race, Party Transformation, and the Rise of Donald Trump; The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Rural America; The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics These books offer three distinct perspectives on the central question in American politics: Why did so many voters support Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential... Walter Russell Mead
U.S. Foreign Policy May/June 2018 Capsule Review Paywall-Free God’s Country: Christian Zionism in America As the American Jewish community grows increasingly divided over U.S. policy toward Israel, much of the academic and policy focus has shifted to the far larger number... Walter Russell Mead
Politics & Society May/June 2018 Capsule Review Paywall-Free New World, Inc.: The Making of America by England’s Merchant Adventurers Americans, claim Butman and Targett in this brisk and fascinating book, spend too much time thinking about the Pilgrims and not enough time thinking about the... Walter Russell Mead
U.S. Foreign Policy May/June 2018 Capsule Review Paywall-Free Arthur Vandenberg: The Man in the Middle of the American Century Until now, Republican Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan has been best known to students of U.S. foreign policy through former Secretary of State Dean Acheson’s... Walter Russell Mead
U.S. Foreign Policy May/June 2018 Capsule Review Paywall-Free Zbigniew Brzezinski: America’s Grand Strategist Vaïsse’s biography of U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, reminds readers just what an extraordinary phenomenon this Polish... Walter Russell Mead
Politics & Society May/June 2018 Capsule Review Paywall-Free Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic Frum thinks that Donald Trump is a bad man and a worse president and that his presidency endangers the American republic. Walter Russell Mead
Politics & Society May/June 2018 Comment The Big Shift The effects of rapid change are often unwelcome, but the process of transformation is one of growth and development, not of decline and fall. Indeed, the ability to... Walter Russell Mead
Security March/April 2018 Capsule Review Paywall-Free The Ghosts of Langley: Into the CIA’s Heart of Darkness There are few government agencies as controversial as the CIA, and few researchers have brought as much passion and determination to understanding it as Prados. Walter Russell Mead
