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Liberalism and the West’s ‘Crisis of Meaning’

Many liberals are strangely eager to concede that liberal societies are morally and spiritually bankrupt without religion to give life meaning.

Matt Johnson

4 Jul 2024 · 25 min read

Colourful plastic bottle tops in a recycling bin.

Recycling Plastic Is a Dangerous Waste of Time

The recycling industry—and the world at large—has yet to fully reckon with a bombshell study that dropped last year.

Frank Celia

17 Jun 2024 · 17 min read

Collage of images from the Mad Max movies

Blood, Sweat, and Gasoline

The story of Hollywood’s most unlikely blockbuster franchise, Mad Max.

Allan Stratton

5 Jun 2024 · 21 min read

John Mearsheimer looks worried in front of Israeli and US flags.

The Limits of ‘The Israel Lobby’

Mearsheimer and Walt still don’t understand American support for Israel.

Matt Johnson

29 May 2024 · 25 min read

A childhood photo of Rob Henderson in a humble living room, smiling in front of a Christmas tree.

Imposing Order on Grief

Rob Henderson's 'Troubled' is a disjointed book, but provides valuable testimony to the importance of a stable childhood.

Iona Italia

22 May 2024 · 23 min read

Less Than Half ‘A Man in Full’

One of US television’s most experienced and talented writers has made a mess of Tom Wolfe’s second novel.

Kevin Mims

13 May 2024 · 24 min read

Demonstrators gather at the gates of Columbia University in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, NY, on Saturday, 20 April 2024.

Springtime for Sinwar

Notes on the pro-Hamas Left and its antecedents.

Jeffrey Herf

2 May 2024 · 21 min read

The Chandos portrait, likely Shakespeare, early 17th century

The Paranoid Style in Shakespeare Denialism

Against conspiracist trends, there is an obligation on defenders of a liberal society to uphold the integrity of its intellectual methods.

Oliver Kamm

2 May 2024 · 25 min read

A black and white portrait of Henry Wallace with a background of colourful Soviet-era stamps.

Misadventures of a Stalinist Stooge

Benn Steil’s engrossing new biography of Henry A. Wallace is a timely cautionary tale and a masterpiece of 20th-century American history.

Ronald Radosh

25 Apr 2024 · 23 min read

A still of Anne Wiazemsky and Jean-Pierre Leaud in Le Chinoise. They are sitting at a table reading and smoking cigarettes.

Jean-Luc Godard in Retrospect Part II: Fanaticism and Failure (1966–2022)

After half a decade of critical adulation, Godard’s career slumped into doctrinaire Maoism, bitterness, incomprehensibility, and irrelevance. It never recovered.

Charlotte Allen

16 Apr 2024 · 36 min read

A woman and two men, snapping their fingers. Image from Band à Part (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964)

Jean-Luc Godard in Retrospect Part I: Abstraction Hero (1930–65)

A brief five-year period produced nearly all the Godard movies that film aficionados still remember, but even these celebrated works have dated poorly.

Charlotte Allen

10 Apr 2024 · 33 min read