America is exceptional. It’s exceptional because of our love for and commitment to individual freedom. And the first individual freedom delineated in the Bill of Rights is the freedom of religion. This first freedom is the subject of Kevin Hasson’s wonderful little read: The Right to Be Wrong. (Hasson is the founder of the Becket […]
5 Minute Book Review | The End of Big: How the Internet Makes David the New Goliath by Nicco Mele
January 12, 2014 by
If Thomas Friedman‘s thesis in his 2005 The World Is Flat is that globalization has led to a flatter playing field, then The End of Big: How the Internet Makes David the New Goliath tells the author Nicco Mele’s vision that the ultimate tool of that equalization is the internet. In truth, it’s not a hard […]
5 Minute Review | Medieval Machine: The Industrial Revolution of the Middle Ages by Jean Gimpel
January 3, 2014 by
The medieval ages were far more like our modern age than we often think. The only thing that came to my mind prior to reading this book was knights and castles. Hardly a dark age as often portrayed, the period was full of industrial innovation, and Jean Gimpel makes an interesting survey of some of […]
Book Review | Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956 by Anne Applebaum
December 28, 2013 by
Perhaps what is most fascinating about the strange episode of human history under which the communist oppression of Eastern Europe falls is that it has gone so long without a comprehensive history of how it occurred. Anne Applebaum‘s Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956 appears to step into that gap, providing in-depth research and a […]
Book Review | An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage [Contributor]
December 27, 2013 by
Food is the nouveau topic to write about. Whether it’s an exposition on the mad genius that is Ferran Adrià, or the theological import of maize in the Mayan culture, food is where it’s at. In this vein, An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage examines food and its impact on the whole of human development. […]
Book Review | Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked a Nation by Deborah Davis [Contributor]
December 23, 2013 by
Some happenings are simultaneously obscure, interesting, and pregnant with historical import. When all of these elements come together, an exploration of the happening and how it shaped subsequent history cannot be anything but a great read. Such is the premise of Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That […]
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