Mark Twain's Travel Log From the Holy Land
Christianity would be wonderful, Twain suggests in The Innocents Abroad, if it weren't for Christians.
Book Reviews
The Fantastic Four: First Steps Positions Superheroes as Benevolent Techno-Authoritarians
A good enough take on Marvel's First Family that ignores its most interesting ideas.
A Beatnik Tourist in Ayahuasca Country
William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg's trip reports form one of the most entertaining books in the Beat canon.
The Depopulation Bomb
What if the challenge for humanity’s future is not too many people on a crowded planet, but too few people to sustain the progress that the world needs?
Yes, You Could Be Both Openly Gay and Conservative in the '80s
The novelist Thomas Mallon's journals reveal a side of the '80s that the standard gay histories—and standard conservative histories—tend to ignore.
Review: What the Hell Is a 'Libertarian Authoritarian'?
Offended Freedom categorizes perfectly understandable anger at government overreach as inherently "authoritarian."
Review: A Doctor Changes His Mind About Opioid Prescriptions
In Greed to Do Good, a former CDC physician calls the agency's war on opioids a disaster.
McCarthyism, Past—and Present?
Clay Risen's Red Scare book wrongly frames it as an exclusively conservative hysteria.
How Freedom Lovers Can Reckon with Addicts and Addiction
A new book looks at addiction through the lens of choice and responsibility.
The Best Democracy Is Anarchy
"Anarchism and democracy are—or should be—largely identical," wrote the anthropologist David Graeber.
Did Bill Buckley Really Lead a Successful Revolution?
You can hear echoes of Buckley's early career in more than one MAGA crusader's rhetoric today. That's not a sign of a man who won.
Review: The Wild Adventures of Women in Anthropology
Anthropology was once built around freewheeling interactions with alien peoples in far-flung lands.
Can We End Racism by Ending the Idea of Race Itself?
Author Sheena Michele Mason offers an alternative vision for anti-racism.
Andor Is a Star Wars Show About the Brutality of Bureaucracy
Tony Gilroy's series reminds us that an empire doesn't need dark magic to be evil.
Review: The Rise of the 'Divorce Memoir'
"There is no typical divorce," writes No Fault author Haley Mlotek.
Review: A Doomsday Murder Mystery Set in an Underground Bunker
Even in a fictitious postapocalyptic world, the government can't be trusted to tell the truth.
Abundance Makes the Case for 'Supply-Side Progressivism'
Progressives used to believe in building more stuff. Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson want to do that again.
In Praise of Zeppo and Shemp
Two new biographies tell the stories of the unsung members of the Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges.
Are We Still Living in 1999?
A new book argues that late-20th-century lowbrow culture created the modern world.
Review: The Christian Case for Free Markets
Mere Economics makes a religious argument for private property and free exchange.
Review: The Whole Story Tells the Story of Whole Foods Market
Company co-founder John Mackey weaves together lessons from his business, spiritual, and personal journeys.
Quinn Slobodian Bastardizes Hayek and Mises
A historian tries to tie two classical liberal economists to the racialist right, and scrambles their words in the process.
Review: Authoritarianism Backfires in the Latest Dune Installment
In Max's Dune: Prophecy, even the power to predict others' actions can't tame the chaos of free will.
Why Economic Sanctions Against Iran Are Backfiring
How Sanctions Work argues the consequences of economic warfare don't always serve American interests.
The Conspiracy Jokers
A new book explores the legacy of the Report on Iron Mountain, while another probes the life of the novelist and essayist Robert Anton Wilson.
Review: A Novel About Pronatalist Government Programs
Set in South Korea, Apartment Women reflects real concerns about the country's lagging birth rate.
Review: Charting the Rise of Anti-Lockdown Activism
Chaos Comes Calling unsympathetically characterizes activism springing from COVID lockdowns as a far-right takeover.
What If Native American Tribes Had Gotten Their Own State?
Historian Donald L. Fixico explores a forgotten moment in Oklahoma history and its lessons about liberty.
Mickey 17 Is a Misbegotten Sci-Fi Trump Satire
Robert Pattinson stars as spacefaring multiples in director Bong Joon-ho's disappointing follow-up to Parasite.
The Best of Reason: Inside the Russian Occupation of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
Harvard historian Serhii Plokhy's book tells the stories of soldiers, stalkers, and squatters in Chernobyl during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Review: A Sci-Fi Exploration of a Shadowy Government
The deeply weird Southern Reach Series reminds us that human institutions can turn people into something unrecognizable.
Review: A Novel About Walls, Both Literal and Figurative
Author Haruki Murakami offers a potent reminder of the value of free movement.
Rise of the 'Constitutional Sheriffs'
Two new books dissect the "constitutional sheriffs" movement, which seeks to nullify laws adherents see as unconstitutional.
Pulp Pleasure and Political Propaganda
Revolution in 35mm is a collection of essays exploring an era of political violence in cinema.
Review: UFO 50 Pays Homage to '80s Video Games
Playing this digital collection of new retro-style games is like rediscovering a box of old cartridges.
How FDR Built the American Security State
Historian Anthony Gregory explains how liberalism can be used to build an apparatus of repression.
Review: Illustrating Britain's Victorian Booze Restrictions
Temperance activists argued that "the people" should have a say in how many alcohol sellers could serve a given neighborhood.
Jeffrey Edward Green: Why Bob Dylan's Prophecies Continue To Fascinate
Jeffrey Edward Green, author of Bob Dylan: Prophet Without God, discusses Dylan’s fraught relationship with political activism, Christianity, and self-mythology.
Libertarianism From the Ground Up
In Common Law Liberalism, legal scholar John Hasnas offers a new vision for a free society.
Are Humans Abandoning the Physical World in Favor of Smartphones?
The Extinction of Experience condemns digital technology but the book is full of contradictions and cherry-picked examples.
Blaming Bill Buckley for Racism, January 6, and More
Historian David Austin Walsh tries and fails to rebut Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism thesis.
In Praise of Ignoring Facts: A Review of Jack Balkin's "Memory and Authority"
Why constitutional theory needs more theory.
