Category Archives: Scholarly Reviews

During my Christmas break, I’ve had the pleasure of cruising through Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President by noted Lincoln historian Harold Holzer. Lincoln’s famous speech at Cooper Union in Manhattan in February, 1860 is … Continue reading →

Over the past several months I’ve had the pleasure of reading Victor Davis Hanson’s stellar Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the History of Western Power. Sold in the U.K. under the more accurate (and more provacative) title Why The … Continue reading →

During this summer’s uncluttered final few weeks, I had the pleasure of reading Anthony Everitt’s fine biography Augustus: The Life of Rome’s First Emperor. The book is a brisk, exciting tour through the life of Rome’s great re-founder, set against … Continue reading →

Over the weekend I finished off Peggy Noonan’s wonderful When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan. Noonan worked as a speechwriter for portions of Reagan’s presidency, and the book is a warm, leisurely accounting of a man she … Continue reading →

This Mother’s Day, I locked myself in the bathroom and finished reading Will Friedwald’s authoritative Sinatra! The Song Is You: A Singer’s Art. The book provides a comprehensive analysis of Sinatra’s dauntingly large catalogue, and an essential insight into the … Continue reading →

Yesterday I had the pleasure of finishing off Mornings on Horseback, David McCullough’s fine biography of the young Theodore Roosevelt and his world. I looked at this book as a companion to Edmund Morris’ Theodore Rex, a biography that focused … Continue reading →