Entries

The Economy of Modern India

In The Importance of Being Earnest , the tutor Miss Prism instructs her student Cecily to omit “The Fall of the Rupee” from her reading in political economy: It is somewhat too sensational. Even these metallic problems have their melodramatic side. As often with Oscar Wilde’…

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Through German Eyes

I am sorry to say that I was a little disappointed by Christopher Duffy's em> Through German Eyes: The British and the Somme 1916 Forgotten Victory

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Ulysses

I am going to break one of my own rules here. I spent much of the month of May listening to Victor Hugo's Les Miserables as my audiobook. 60 hours - that's a lot of workouts! I was (no surprise here) dazzled by it. So much so that my blog on the book remains unfinished. (I should have blogged …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Lying About Hitler

If works of history can ever be described as "heroic," then surely Richard Evans' exhaustive and meticulous Lying About Hitler: History, Holocaust, and the David Irving Trial meets the test. Evans is a professor of modern German history at Cambridge University, author of the definitive …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Infidel

Ayaan Hirsi Ali's em> Infidel

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

The Wal-Mart Revolution

Suppose there were a company that saved low-income American consumers hundreds of billions of dollars - created new jobs and opportunities for tens of thousands of people in poor and rural areas of the country - and introduced the greatest range of productivity innovations by any one company since …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Les Miserables

It’s almost obligatory to begin any comment on Victor Hugo with Andre Gide’s famous answer when asked to name France’s greatest poet: “Victor Hugo, alas.” I think I understand what Gide meant. Hugo’s prose masterwork, Les Miserables , stretches over …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

An Economic History of India

In The Importance of Being Earnest, the tutor Miss Prism instructs her student Cecily to omit ÒThe Fall of the RupeeÓ from her reading in political economy: It is somewhat too sensational. Even these metallic problems have their melodramatic side. As often with Oscar WildeÕs jokes, this one …

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

Mussolini's Italy

RJB Bosworth's Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship 1915-1945 is an intermittently interesting but deeply, deeply flawed social history of - well just what it says, life under Mussolini's dictatorship. At its best, the book gives fascinating little glimpses into the poverty …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Simon Bolivar: A Life

Simon Bolivar: A Life by John Lynch. (Yale 2006.) A good modern biography of Bolivar is much needed. This plodding volume is not it. How on earth do you manage to make the life of Bolivar of all people dull? This book offers few fresh insights into the thinking of one of the most arresting …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

The Man Who Saved Britain

In my house, books are distributed room to room on principles that have a good deal more to do with the availability of shelving than any kind of bibliographic logic. My bedroom contains poetry, travel, and my stockpile of books bought or sent but not yet read. And, ulp, there are some 200 books in …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Blood of Victory

Speaking of spy fiction - spy literature I should say in this case - I finished the audiobook of Alan Furst's Blood of Victory on the elliptical machine yesterday. Who is the original author of the line, "Those who like this kind of thing will find that it is just the kind of thing they like"? …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Pere Goriot

em> Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac

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

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

Rob Roy

em> Rob Roy

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

Plot To Destroy Healthcare? Not!

It's true: they did it. The Democrats managed to get the words "comparative effectiveness" into the stimulus bill, just as many conservatives warned, which means that the infrastructure for rationing Medicare is now in place. The idea is pretty simple: a national health board will determine the …

Written by Thomas J. Marier on Thursday February 19, 2009

Talkin' Bout My Generation

The affronts of punditry and the commentariat have left us bruised and battered. Assailed as the “dumbest generation” and a group of “narcissistic praise hounds”, under-30s suffer from regular assaults on their integrity, work ethic and intelligence. But how does the world look to someone born in …

Written by Tim Mak on Thursday February 19, 2009