Free Republic

Daniel Sneider There is a fine tradition of Europeans explaining America to itself. The most famous example of this is the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville's two-volume masterpiece, ``Democracy in America,´´ written during the 1830s. ``The Right Nation,´´ by two British journalists, John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, may not be nearly so enduring a classic. Nor does it match de Tocqueville´s profound insights into American life. But it does offer a journey into American political life that is rich in reporting and provocative in its analysis. ``This book is both a portrait and an argument,´´ write the authors, both of whom...

June 25, 2004 -- The New York Times, which last Sunday published a scathing front-page review of Bill Clinton's "My Life," has alerted subscribers that another, much kinder and gentler review is coming July 4 in The New York Times Book Review. Entitled "Confessions of a Policy Wonk" and written by the novelist Larry McMurtry, the prominently placed review calls the book "the richest American presidential autobiography," and says that the former president is a better writer than Reagan, Ford, Nixon or Lyndon Johnson. Unlike Michiko Kakutani, the author of the June 20 review, who called Clinton's book "eye-crossingly dull,"...

Arianna Huffington has written a new book, "Fanatics and Fools: The Game Plan for Winning America Back." It’s pointless to debate Ms. Huffington’s newfound ideology since there is no guarantee that between the time these words are typed and published she won’t have embraced yet a different cause. It is, however, instructive to note that when she left the conservative movement behind, she forgot to pack the truth into her suitcase. Huffington recounts a nightmare event for her – the "Conservative Summit" hosted by the National Review magazine back in early 1993. She tells how the event began "in bombastic...