Category: books

George Herbert’s ‘The Pulley’: The Gifts of Rest and Restlessness

“Our hearts are restless until they rest in you,” wrote St. Augustine. Over 1,000 years later, George Herbert wrote a poem giving us the backstory as to why this is so. George Herbert lived from 1593 to 1633 and was one of the metaphysical poets who wrote in 17th-century England. I defer to the wisdom…


Book Review: ‘Gothic War on Terror: Killing, Haunting, and PTSD in American Film, Fiction, Comics, and Video Games’

Danel Olson is known in the academic and film world for dissecting the psychology and history behind well-known films, like “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Shining.” His latest works have delved into the fictional creations inspired by the September 11 terrorist attacks and the Global War on Terror that ensued over the following two decades. His…


Book Review: ‘Feminism Against Progress’

Anyone familiar with Mary Harrington’s columns in UnHerd will know her as a thinker of exceptional originality, acuity and freshness. Her first book does not disappoint her fans. It is an eye-popping analysis of what she calls “reality denying” woke feminism as it has evolved since the 1960s. Harrington describes herself as a “revisionist feminist” because she…


Book Review: ‘The Old Lion: A Novel of Theodore Roosevelt’

In the mid-1990s, Mrs. Irene Harrison (1890–1999) several times stayed in the bed-and-breakfast my wife and I operated in Waynesville, North Carolina. Daughter of famed tire entrepreneur Frank Seiberling, this centenarian was a gracious lady with a distinctly conservative take on politics. Once when she and her son were discussing politics in the living room,…


Book Review: ‘Christopher Dawson: A Cultural Mind in the Age of the Great War’

Dawson died in 1970 after half a century of significant publication. His reputation fell into the usual trough of posthumous neglect, but by the 1990s it had recovered, leading to various studies of his thought, new editions of his books (including a Collected Works series published by the Catholic University of America Press), and several…


Anna Mary Robertson Moses: America’s Grandma

Anna Mary Robertson Moses (1860–1961) witnessed the evolution of America. She was born two months before Abraham Lincoln was elected and died nearly a full year into the Kennedy administration. She grew up on a farm and remained on a farm. It was the farm life that she was most known for, but predominantly for…


Epoch Booklist: Recommended Reading for June 9–15

This week, we feature the recently found memoirs of one of baseball’s greats and a fascinating true story of a shipwrecked, mutinous crew. Nonfiction ‘The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder’ By David Grann In 1740, a squadron of seven ships left Portsmouth, England, on a mission to capture a fabled Spanish galleon….


Book Recommendation: ‘How the Canyon Became Grand: A Short History’

The word “breathtaking” did not make it into Noah Webster’s original 1823 American Dictionary of the English Language. Perhaps, it is because the adjective was not necessary until the Grand Canyon became a national monument and then a national park almost a century after Webster first published his grand volume. Yet, it is the word…


Lower-Class Humor in the Middle Ages: The Miller’s Tale

The Miller’s tale is probably the most entertaining story in the “Canterbury Tales,” a collection of 24 tales featuring 29 characters from all walks of life who are on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, England. As part of a storytelling contest, the pilgrims tell each other stories, and this framework allows Geoffrey Chaucer, the preeminent writer…


Epoch Booklist: Recommended Reading for June 2–8

This week, we feature a Smoky Mountains cookbook with a side of savory stories and a unique slant on one of America’s most beloved illustrators. Art ‘Norman Rockwell’s Models: In and out of the Studio’ By S.T. Haggerty For fans of Norman Rockwell, Haggerty has made a beautiful and unique contribution to the artist’s legacy….