Overview for Book Reviews

Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

After Adrian Goldsworthy's outstanding biography of Julius Caesar (David's Bookshelf 72), the chronologically minded reader will almost inevitably next turn to Anthony Everitt's Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor . After all, Everitt's biography of Cicero was widely praised, and …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

The Faithful Departed: The Collapse of Boston's Ca

Titles matter! I took up Philip Lawler's The Faithful Departed: The Collapse of Boston's Catholic Culture in the belief that I would be reading ... well just what the title said, a study of the secularization of Massachusetts Catholicism. For my purposes, Lawler's book opened very …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

The Complete Roman Army

Oh my gosh, what a cool book is The Complete Roman Army by Adrian Goldsworthy! Minutely detailed, lavishly illustrated, the only thing that disappointed me was the sad awareness of how much pleasure this book would have given my 14-year-old self had it been available then! The drawings of …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Caesar: Life of a Colossus

Can there possibly be any justification for a new biography of Julius Caesar? Adrian Goldsworthy's em> Caesar: Life of a Colossus

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Scenes of Clerical Life

One of my more frequent email correspondents cites an assigned reading of George Eliot’s Middlemarch as one of the great traumas of his college years. Eliot – the pseudonym of course of Mary Ann Evan – is one of the more daunting of the Victorian writers to our contemporary …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government's Hands Off

Here are two important books that stake out important positions in the looming debate over the future of the Republican party and the conservative movement: Grover Norquist Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government's Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, and Our Lives and Ross Douthat & …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Reagan's Disciple: George W. Bush's Troubled Quest

Bush on the Couch George W. Bush may be among the least introspective men ever to hold the presidency. But no worries! There are plenty of volunteers eager to do his self-examination for him. HereÕs Jacob Weisberg: ÒThe presidentÕs inability to master his feelings toward his parents drove …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Worki

Here are two important books that stake out important positions in the looming debate over the future of the Republican party and the conservative movement: Grover Norquist Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government's Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, and Our Lives and Ross Douthat & Reihan Salam Grand …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

The Bush Tragedy

George W. Bush may be among the least introspective men ever to hold the presidency. But no worries! There are plenty of volunteers eager to do his self-examination for him. Here’s Jacob Weisberg : “The president’s inability to master his feelings toward his parents drove …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Reveille in Washington

Margaret Leech's em> Reveille in Washington

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush

Robert Draper, author of Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush , scored an amazing coup in gaining six hours of interview time with the president shortly after the 2004 presidential election. It's not Draper's fault that the President declined to say anything very interesting in those …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Full Circle

"Very flat country, Poland." So said long-time NR contributor and new Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski, as we whizzed at 90 miles an hour on the two-lane highway west from Warsaw. He's right of course, even though at the time I was more interested in the deadly game of zip and pass he was …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

The Roman Triumph

Fashion sways everything, the writing of history very much included. For a generation, the fashion in Roman history has been to emphasize the uncanniness and archaism of Roman customs, the wild incommensurability between Roman mentalities and those of the present day. By contrast, in her …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

The Civil War: Vol 3, Red River to Appomattox

Last week, I at last completed listening to the final volume of Shelby Foote's civil war trilogy: The Civil War Vol. 3: Red River to Appomattox I'd expressed some qualms at the start of the series, but volume 2 won me - and volume 3 overwhelmed me. As the war becomes more terrible, Foote's …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

American Notes

Charles Dickens' em> American Notes Domestic Habits of the Americans

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Five Days in Philadelphia

Charlie Peters, former editor of the Washington Monthly , is one of those very partisan Democrats to whom the only good Republican is a dead Republican. And who is deader than Wendell Willkie? So in em> Five Days in Philadelphia

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Why I Turned Right

Well here's an awkward one - a volume of essays including one not only by the esteemed editor of National Review, but also one by my wife. So let's get the essential preliminaries out of the way: Danielle Crittenden's essay, "Pacifists, Pacifiers, and Snakeskin Miniskirts," is the finest example of …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Rob Roy

em> Rob Roy

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Right Side Up

Finished late last night span style="font-style: normal;"> Right Side Up: The Fall of Paul Martin and the Rise of Stephen Harper's New Conservatism

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

The Cure

It's always nerve wracking when a friend publishes a book. What if it's not good? That question never arises with my friend David Gratzer , rapidly emerging as one of this continent's leading experts on free-market healthcare reform. David comes to this great issue with two great advantages: …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009