American Politics
A selection of recent articles on this topic
The Virtues of the Old Establishment
There is something I miss about George Herbert Walker Bush and the bipartisan establishment he represented. I…
Nat Hentoff: One of a Kind
Nat Hentoff died recently, at the age of 91, in his own apartment, “surrounded by family [and]…
The Politics of Answered Prayer
Unanswered prayer is hard to take. “Ask and it will be given,” Jesus promises. When we ask…
Cocktails with the Existentialists
Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktailsby sarah bakewellother press, 448 pages, $25 More than seven decades…
My Orange Juice Came from Brazil
A couple of weeks ago when I was having breakfast, I noticed that my “not from concentrate”…
The John the Baptist of Post-Truth Politics
There is being a sore loser, and there is being a sore loser. Bill Clinton has many…
Rogue One and the Return of Reverence
Star Wars is—or should be—a religious franchise. The Jedi are a monastic order trained in contemplating and…
Tocqueville in the Gutter
The Art of Being Free: How Alexis de Tocqueville Can Save Us from Ourselvesby james poulosst martin’s,…
Contra Mundum
The world unfurls its flag of toleration,issues its edicts of equality,and he who bears the sign of…
Letters
Fascist Fallacy R. R. Reno’s “Election 2016” (November) succeeds as an analysis of the historical context gestating…
A New Poverty
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisisby j. d. vanceharper, 272 pages, $27.99…
Eros and Dorothy Day
Christians, it has been said, “worry about what people are doing in bed much more than making…
First Things in the Year Ahead
It’s been a remarkable year. The success of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump signal significant…
More Fascinating than Fiction
Netflix announced its series The Crown as a “biopic” unprecedented in quality and cost—and that was not…
From Atheism to First Things
At the time I came to First Things in mid-2014, I was just a couple of years…