Book Review

How America Fights Wars in a Unique Way: Review of Patterson’s Just American Wars
How America’s Wars Have Been (Mostly) Just: Review of Eric Patterson’s Just American Wars

Eric Patterson contends in Just American Wars that the US is unique because of how it considers ethical and moral dilemmas when it fights. Particularly, the country’s democratic institutions force any politician who wishes to engage in a war to explain to voters, civil society, and other parts of the government why the war must be fought.

Rich Lowry Calls for a Unifying, Liberal Nationalism - Book Review of The Case for Nationalism
Rich Lowry Calls for a Unifying, Liberal Nationalism

Nationalism should form the bonds of social contract in any great power, and should not just be an idea that is despised by the far-left and usurped by the far-right.

Babelic America? A Response to Paul D. Miller
Babelic America? A Response to Paul D. Miller

I am grateful to Paul D. Miller for his recent review of “Between Babel and Beast.” Some of his criticisms hit home, some miss the mark. I respond to a few.

Humbling Account of a Vietnam Tragedy: Review of Bowden’s Hue 1968
Humbling Account of a Vietnam Tragedy: Review of Mark Bowden’s Hue 1968

In Hue 1968, Mark Bowden describes the horrors of war through the eyes of those who fought the battles. His work is carefully researched, well organized, and smoothly written.

Mythbusters: American Founding Edition — Review of Mark David Hall’s Did America Have a Christian Founding?
Mythbusters: American Founding Edition — Review of Mark David Hall’s Did America Have a Christian Founding?

In Did America Have a Christian Founding? Mark David Hall explores a perennially debated topic that needs a proper evaluation now more than ever.

Religious Freedom in Muslim and Christian Lands: Review of Philpott’s Religious Freedom in Islam and Wilken’s Liberty in the Things of God
Religious Freedom in Muslim and Christian Lands: Review of Philpott’s Religious Freedom in Islam and Wilken’s Liberty in the Things of God

Islam and Christianity have overlapping views of religious freedom, and both are guilty of religious persecution. Two recently published books address these realities: Religious Freedom in Islam: The Fate of a Universal Human Right in the Muslim World Today by Daniel Philpott and Liberty in the Things of God: The Christian Origins of Religious Freedom by Robert Louis Wilken.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
A Conflicted American Perspective on Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Review of Haynes’ The Battle for Bonhoeffer

Notwithstanding Stephen Haynes’ professional reputation amongst Dietrich Bonhoeffer scholars or his prior excellent corpus of scholarly writings about the German pastor, his current book categorically fails to satisfy.

“The Bookcase” Spring-Summer 2019 Issue

The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great, by Ben Shapiro (Broadside, 2019). This…

The World Turned, but in What Direction? Review of Jacobs’ The Year of Our Lord 1943

Alan Jacobs’ book The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in the Age of Crisis investigates the hopes and fears of major Christian intellectuals who struggled to process the total devastation WWII wrought.