Book Reviews
A Declassified Case Against Torture
Retired FBI agent Ali Soufan argues that the agency's thirst for torture made it harder to protect Americans.
Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction
For sci fi fans who enjoy getting lost in internet rabbit holes
The Expanse
People are people and politics is politics, no matter how far you get from planet Earth.
Tomorrow, the World
As France fell to Nazi Germany, America's elites glanced nervously eastward and began to envision the U.S. as the new defender of global order.
Let Me Tell You What I Mean
Didion reminds us that while youth culture and political leaders may change, our underlying drives and delusions seldom do.
Why We (Still) Shouldn't Censor Misinformation
It strains credulity to believe random tweets can lead otherwise normal people to drive across the country and stage an insurrection.
Wollstonecraft
A new book aims to reveal the rest of Mary Wollstonecraft's worldview beyond her support for women's rights
A Radical History of Tennis?
Despite some interesting tidbits, a new history of the game falls short.
Debris Represents the Crumbling Leftovers of X-Files Rip-offs
Oh look, two mismatched government agents investigating alien technology.
Was the Reagan Revolution Really Reagan's?
While we're at it, was it really a revolution?
Miracles and Magic
The desire to know one's fortune seems to be an instinctive human urge.
Neutron Gun Reloaded
Gerry Reith's raw, paranoid, apocalyptic fables were shot through with distrust for just about every institution around.
Meddling in the Ballot Box
As long as there have been American elections, foreign powers have sought to influence them.
Space, the Final Smuggling Frontier
In a glimpse of a gloriously rule-breaking future, contraband has boldly gone where more is sure to follow.
Americans and Their Foreign Entanglements
Nothing in U.S. history suggests that ordinary Americans are isolationists—but nothing suggests they've embraced international adventurism either.
The Truth About the Free Market Family
Maxine Eichner's The Free-Market Family laments the bad public policy that makes it hard for parents to juggle work and child care, but often arrives at the wrong solutions.
Hollywood Still Can't Figure Out How to Adapt The Stand
If you’re looking for a coherent, compelling version of Stephen King’s pandemic opus, keep on walking.
Three Book Recommendations From Me (Plus Many From My Colleagues)
An excellent fantasy series, an 1100 page biography, and the original meaning of Article II
The Ultimate 2020 Libertarian Gift Guide
Reason's writers and editors share their suggestions for what you should be buying your friends and family this year.
Trump Imitates King Joffrey From "Game of Thrones"
His angry insistence that "I'm the President of the United States!" is reminiscent of Joffrey's famous similar statement: "I am the King!"
Penguin Random House Employees Broke Down in Tears at Thought of Publishing Jordan Peterson's Next Book
"He is an icon of hate speech and transphobia."
The History of Fabric Is the History of Civilization
Virginia Postrel's new book explores economics, politics, and technology through textiles.
The Nationalism-ists
The members of Steve Bannon's international circle share an outlandish spiritual-historic vision, but their threat to liberty is more mundane.
The Weird Beauty of Suburbia
How can a place that we're intimately familiar with—more than half of America lives in the suburbs—be so unknowable?
A Look at America's Most Corrupt Police
A new book shows how the Baltimore Police Department let dirty cops flourish right under its nose.
Welfare for the Rich
The book details how the wealthy use the power of the state to snatch your money for their farms, stadiums, banks, real estate developments, and more.
Salvaging Secession
The Founders understood union as a strategic necessity, not a moral imperative.
Reviews: Love and Monsters and J.R. 'Bob' Dobbs and the Church of the SubGenius
A good teens-and-creatures movie, and a deep dive into a glorious fake cult
Guns and Control
San Francisco writer Guy Smith finds little evidence that the availability of firearms explains differences in suicide and homicide rates.
The Long, Dark History of Family Separations
How politicians used the drug war and the welfare state to break up black and Native American families
Apocalypse Never
The book argues that rising prosperity and increasing technological prowess will ameliorate or reverse most deleterious environmental trends.
Prison by Any Other Name
State involvement in people's lives—even "for their own good"—ends up becoming a backdoor way of policing and control.
Seeing Like an Anarchist
How former slaves built an autonomous, self-sufficient, and nearly stateless society in the mountains of Haiti, and how they lost it
Marijuana Federalism
How do we resolve the cannabis conflict between state legalization and federal prohibition?
John Yoo: The Man Who Would Make the President King
The Trump presidency has been a stress test for maximalist theories of presidential power.
Immortality, Inc.
Meet the wild dreamers and wealthy financiers striving for human immortality.
George R.R. Martin Becomes a Victim of NIMBY Zoning Restrictions
Sadly, he's far from the only one. If we want to "break the wheel" of poverty and housing shortages, we need to roll back zoning.
A Song for a New Day
The Nebula Award winner is set in a near-future where public gatherings have been radically limited by a global pandemic and threats of violence.
Very Important People
Mears' effort to take readers behind the velvet rope and explore the world of clubbing proves both fun and sobering.
Upload
Consumer culture continues into the afterlife in Amazon's sci-fi/mystery/romance/workplace comedy mashup.
