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I just started reading The Road to Serfdom - just started the second chapter after slugging through the various introductions and prefaces. About halfway through the first chapter, I started wondering – not for the first time – that whenever there is a discussion on socialism, some things – to me – always seem to be missing. One, how come no one ever does a compare/contrast with socialism and our Declaration of Independence and Constitution? Two, how come no one really defines socialism? How did it start? What is the difference between communism, Marxism, socialism, fascism, Nazism? I have heard...

Red herrings - A review of American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation's Character by Diana West Stumbling into a barroom brawl was the last thing I’d intended. Lined up on one side: sculptors of a hagiography that is now conventional wisdom crow about a noble conquest over totalitarian dictators. The other side bellows: “Nonsense! In defeating one monster, your heroes merely helped create another, sullying us with their atrocities and burdening us for decades with a global security nightmare.” The first side spews that its critics are deranged, defamatory conspiracy-mongers. The critics fire back that these “court historians”...

Ol' Backwoods just finished a book that I have been avoiding since my teen years, a book, I supposed, so utterly despondent in its outlook, so stolid in its prediction of failure of civilization, that it would cast its pall of darkness over me, without recovery. But I was wrong. Earth Abides (Amazon) Earth Abides by George R. Stewart is one of the most important, one of the more comforting, and one of the more hopeful books I have ever read. Surprised?  Yeah, so am I.  What could an atheist Berkeley professor write that should impress a backwoods Christian engineer...

GED prep guides, nursing and other professional exam cliff notes were high on the list of frequently filched books — but so too were graphic novels, library officials said. Book thieves checked out but never returned 70,144 books from Brooklyn Public Library’s 60 cash-strapped branches in 2012, records show. GED prep guides, nursing and other professional exam cliff notes were high on the list of frequently filched books — but so too were graphic novels, library officials said. “Those are always going missing,” a librarian at the Brooklyn Heights branch told the Daily News Thursday.

The Guns of August & The Proud Tower by Barbara W. Tuchman http://www.amazon.com/Barbara-W-Tuchman-Library-America/dp/159853145X/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

With the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination this past November, I began revisiting the various conspiracy theories that have appeared over the years. I never put any stock in the Warren Commission and the establishment verdict of “Oswald as lone killer.” But among all the conspiracy portrayals put forth, none truly satisfied me as definitive. That is until I read JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters, by James W. Douglass. There are hundreds of “JFK conspiracy” books in print, but Douglass takes the reader to places not visited by others eloquently and hauntingly. And...

Who hasn’t had some liberal sneer at him, “Why don’t you conservatives go read a book?” This powerful critique of the intellectual deficiencies of my ideological brethren always cuts me to the bone. I’m usually so upset that I run weeping to my fine German touring sedan, completely forgetting to tip the nose-studded holder of a degree in Gender Neutral Puppetry who pointed out my educational failings while he fetched my latte. This meme is nonsense. In fact, conservative tastes in books can be quite eclectic. One day last week, Amazon delivered Hugh Hewitt’s new book on happiness concurrently with...

The media quickly came up with a term for the apparently politically orchestrated George Washington Bridge traffic jam: "Bridgegate." Now what catchy term do the media attach to the explosive new book castigating the incumbent wartime commander in chief? "Gatesgate"? Hardly. Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is suspected of orchestrating, for political payback, a traffic jam on the GW Bridge. "Meet the Press" spent more than half of its most recent show -- 28 minutes not counting commercials -- on "Bridgegate," less than 11 minutes on the Gates' allegations, another 12 minutes reporting on women living in poverty and...

I haven’t seen my copy of Men On Strike for several weeks. I kept careful watch on the book until I finished interviewing her, but after that it disappeared into the Bowyer-Family-Book-Sharing Vortex from which it has not yet emerged. That’s because it is an easy read about a topic which is interesting in both a social science theory way, and in a figuring out how to get by in the current world kind of way. Men on Strike is pretty much what the title says it is, a book about how many men have decided not to participate in...

Per Wiki: God's Not Dead is an upcoming American drama film based on the book of the same name by Rice Broocks and the song of the same name by the Newsboys. The film is directed by Harold Cronk, and stars Shane Harper, Kevin Sorbo, Jim Gleason, David A.R. White, Marco Khan and Dean Cain. The film will be released to theaters on March 21, 2014 by Pure Flix Entertainment. Josh Wheaton (Shane Harper), a freshman college student, enrolls in a philosophy class taught by an infamous and dictatorial professor. Prof. Radisson (Kevin Sorbo) demands that all of his students...

War is unquestionably mankind at his worst. Yet, paradoxically, it is in war that men — individual men — often show the very best of themselves. War is often the result of greed, stupidity, or depravity. But in it, men are often brave, loyal, and selfless. I am not a soldier. I have no plans to become one. But I’ve studied war for a long time. I am not alone in this. The greats have been writing and reading about war — its causes, its effects, its heroes, its victims — since the beginning of written text. Some of our...

As a student of history I was interested in the new Beck book Miracles and Massacres and was wondering if anyone had read it yet and if it was good history.

Happy National Science Fiction Day! January 2nd is the day selected for this wonderful holiday because it was Isaac Asimov's birthday. It's a day to celebrate, appreciate, and even read some of the many science fiction offerings at your local library, bookstore, website, or your own bookshelf.

This is Week 12 of Season 3 in my 13 Weeks of Wild Man Writing and Radical Reading Series . Every week day I try to blog about compelling writers, their ideas, and the news cycle’s most interesting headlines. This Top 10 list is the series’ climax for this year, a project I’ve been planning since first asking the question December 5, 2012 . What is the future of conservatism? Which voices should define the priorities of the movement in the coming decades? Who are its most skilled proponents today? How should the movement evolve to face the threats...

The holiday season should be a time of faith -- a time to show compassion for those in the military, as well as for their families. This is definitely the theme of three recent books: The First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Albom, The Trident: The Forging and Reforging of a Navy Seal by Jason Redman, and American Heroes: On The Homefront: The Hearts Of Heroes by Oliver North with Bob Hamer. Throughout these books, the theme of hope and the belief in G-d is emphasized. American Thinker interviewed the authors about their books... Oliver North's latest book shows...

Americans are inclined to believe that, with the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the Cold War from 1945 to 1991 was over. In fact, that war of ideologies, communism versus capitalism, began in the 1920s after the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, initiated a covert program to undermine America. Today we call it "political correctness" and its impact on our society is sapping it of its true history and values. "Willing Accomplices: How KGB Covert Intelligence Agents Created Political Correctness, Obama's Hate-America-First Political Platform, and Destroyed America" by Kent Clizbe, a former CIA espionage officer, reveals how active and...

In his latest book Tea Party Catholic, Dr. Samuel Gregg develops a Catholic case for the values and institutions associated with the free economy, limited government, and America’s experiment in ordered liberty.He underscores the moral and economic benefits of business and markets, addresses the welfare state’s problems, and deals with related issues that divide Catholics in America such as the demands of social justice, the role of unions, immigration, poverty, and the relationship between secularism and big government.Gregg concludes that as a creative minority, limited government Catholics can help transform the wider movement to reground the United States upon the...

With recent footage of black teenagers cold-cocking random strangers in a deadly game known as “Knockout,” Americans should recognize how badly our country needs a selfless voice of leadership heard in all of our homes. But until the dignified message of someone like Dr. Ben Carson becomes mainstream, Mark Twain’s classic punch to the face has always packed the power to knock some sense in to people who need it the most. Nearly 130 years after The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published, Twain’s timeless lessons on race and humanity continue to offer America a remedy to racial bigotry --...

I am building a list of books I can keep and/or recommend to others, especially those with kids. I need your help with books that are not the product of left leaning bias and/or were written in the past. I am a full time professional storyteller and public speaker and use such as source material for stories and to recommend to parents and adults when they ask for suggestions. The problem is that so many newer books portray our Founding Fathers and other American heroes poorly or have rewritten history to the point that I no longer recognize it. By...