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The Claremont Review of Books features original essays and reviews by influential thinkers like Victor Davis Hanson, Jonah Goldberg, Mark Helprin, Michael Barone, Midge Decter, Charles Kesler and more! Read about "big ideas" that are now shaping America's future.Civil Rights and the Conservative Movement
Viewed from 2008, the movement William F. Buckley, Jr., led was detached from the civil rights struggle because conservatives, despite frequent and apparently sincere expressions of hope for racial harmony, rarely viewed the fight against pervasive, entrenched, and episodically brutal racial discrimination as a question of great moral urgency, writes William Voegeli in the Summer 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.What Howe Hath Wrought
Decades hence, what Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. was to Andrew Jackson and the Democrats, Daniel Walker Howe will be to John Quincy Adams and the Whigs, writes Christopher Levenick in the Summer 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.Washing Mud from Marble
For a century and more after his death, Abraham Lincoln was extolled as the greatest example of what American democracy offered in a statesman. But just as a vast skepticism about the value of democracy has darkened the American mind over the past generation, so has a skepticism about the value of Abraham Lincoln, and it has become fashionable for democracy's despisers to cast Lincoln as a racist, a wrecker of the Constitution, a military despot, a capitalist tool, and a great fixer rather than a Great Emancipator, writes Allen C. Guelzo in the Summer 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.Rich Country, Strong Arms
Worldwide, activists of every stripe, from dilettante movie stars to Tibetans and Uighurs willing to lay down their lives, have seen China's coming into the light because of the Olympics as a point of leverage by which to make its governance more humane and democratic. They are mistaken, writes Mark Helprin in the Summer 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.Summer 2008 CRB (4.6 MB)
Bearing Witness
We might call Clarence Thomas the essential American, a man who loved America from the start, even when that love was painfully unrequited. As the Supreme Court Justice most committed to conservatism and the constitution, it is not too much to say that the success of the American experiment depends in part on whether the opinions of Justice Thomas continue to persuade, writes Wendy E. Long in the Summer 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.Faith Friendly?
John DiIulio offers a vision of faith friendly policy that is free from parochialism and cant, but he muddies the waters on faith-based hiring rights, writes Joseph M. Knippenberg.Books in Brief
Correspondence
The Critic Who Sometimes Exists
First Things
When Law is Not Enough
Lawyers and legislators can only go so far in directing the conduct of war. Then you need a president, writes Michael M. Uhlmann in the Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.Man of a Thousand Faces
Our Robed Rulers
City on a Hill
Will the Real Liberal Please Stand Up?
The Great and the Good
Nixon's the One
Make the Sudan an Offer It Can't Refuse
A Bright and Active Boy
Puritans and Cavaliers
Beyond the Nation State
A Righteous Wind
Yin and Yang
A Monument to Adams
Our Philosophic Constitution
Paul R. DeHart's Uncovering the Constitution's Moral Design argues that the United States Constitution is thoroughly Aristotelian and Thomistic, but one wonders if it is as logically consistent as DeHart's method forces it to be, writes Ryan T. Anderson.
Tyranny of the Majority
Unruly Americans, by University of Richmond historian Woody Holton, is a tendentious and unapologetic neo-populist fable that dismisses the favorable view of the founders advanced in recent scholarship, writes Herman Belz.The Persistence of Religion
Through its radical questioning of all things including religion and tradition, modern thought had made all things questionable, including modernity's confident repudiation of religion and tradition, writes Peter Berkowitz in the Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.
Against the Atheists
The case against atheism remains necessary and important. But that case will not suffice against the rivals Christians face, writes Dinesh D'Souza in Spring 2008 of Claremont Review of Books.
Golden Juggler
Joseph Epstein has chosen the Samuel Johnson route to literary renown, in which familiarity breeds affection, and in four decades of brilliant writing he has become his own Boswell, writes Joseph Tartakovsky in the Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.
Our American Mind for War
Because of the American mind for war, America's conflicts have fallen into two broad types: professional wars and citizen wars, writes Thomas A. Bruscino, Jr.
A Nicer Form of Tyranny
The Progressives were the first generation of Americans to reject the American Founders' classical or natural rights liberalism, offering instead a vision of the modern state as a kind of god with almost limitless power to achieve "social justice." When modern liberals like Senator Clinton call themselves progressives, therefore, they are telling the truth, even if their audiences don't fully understand the implications, writes Ronald J. Pestritto in the Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.
Economics and the Entrepreneur
Joseph Schumpeter put growth and entrepreneurship at the center of economics, illuminating the way forward into the 21st century and showing how the possibility of civilization, with all its blessings and challenges, could spread across the globe, writes Carl J. Schramm in the Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.Thoughts and Adventures
The eight-volume Winston S. Churchill is a biography worthy of a great man, writes Larry P. Arnn in the Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.
Correspondence
abstractA Born Teacher
Two new books remind us what made William F. Buckley, Jr., so extraordinary, writes Daniel Oliver in the Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.
Spring 2008 Claremont Review of Books Now Available
The Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books is now available, featuring Charles R. Kesler and Daniel Oliver on William F. Buckley, Jr., James W. Ceaser on the 2008 presidential primaries, Harry V. Jaffa on Sen. Obama's reply to Rev. Wright, Michael M. Uhlmann on the war powers, Carl J. Schramm on modern economics, Larry P. Arnn on Sir Winston Churchill, Harvey C. Mansfield on charity, plus discussions of Progressivism, atheism, intelligent design, P.G. Wodehouse, Dick Cheney, Joseph Epstein, Henry Adams, the Glorious Revolution, the Civil War, and more.
Spring 2008 CRB (4.6 MB PDF)
God Bless America
abstractFrom the New to the Old Whigs
McCain Mutiny
Ostracism following tests of ideological purity and "right thinking" is a specialty of the Left. Not that it doesn't exist on the Right, blooming with great malice as it does on the radio, writes Mark Helprin in the Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.
Buckley's Legacy
Bill Buckley knew that there is something precious and worth fighting for at the root of the American way of life, at the foundation of the Republic, writes Charles R. Kesler in the Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.
The Common Form of All the Virtues
The reason that liberals give less is that they believe in justice more than generosity. They think that generosity is hit-or-miss, whereas justice covers everyone, at least in principle, writes Harvey C. Mansfield in the Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.States' Rights and Wrongs
Not only did secession fracture the Union, it did so on behalf of a practice which obliterated the fundamental natural right to liberty, which the federal Constitution was supposed to protect, writes Allen C. Guelzo in the Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.
Property vs. Democracy
Can the American regime combine equality and strong democracy with extensive material prosperity, asks Alan Gibson in the Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.
The Master
P.G. Wodehouse is adored the world over. By the turn of the millennium he had sold some 100 million books in more than 20 languages, writes Cheryl Miller in the Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.
The Education of Henry Adams
In The Education of Henry Adams, the author took history so seriously that he lamented deeply his incapacity to impart any generalizations worthy of being called lessons, much less laws, writes John Patrick Diggins in the Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.Not a Hugger
Cheney Derangement Syndrome is threatening the mental health of the cultural and political Left, writes John J. Pitney, Jr., in the Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.Science and Faith
What are we to make of the fact that thousands of scientists go about their research every day, untroubled by the notion that science and theism are incompatible, asks Joseph M. Bessette in the Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.
He Was No Alexander Hamilton
Aaron Burr concealed, under a pose of languor and nonchalance, a keen ambition and a projecting boldness, writes Michael Knox Beran in the Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.
What a Long, Strange Race It's Been
With little in the way of new thinking to offer, Senators Obama, Clinton, and McCain have focused on the "personal factor," writes James W. Ceaser in the Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.
God Bless America
We may understand how Rev. Jeremiah Wright could so awfully misunderstand the American political tradition, inasmuch as it has been so very misunderstood for so long. But this misunderstanding is a cancer which can in the end prove fatal, not only to a political campaign but to our country, writes Harry V. Jaffa in this special preview of the Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.What a Long, Strange Race It's Been
With little in the way of new thinking to offer, Senators Obama, Clinton, and McCain have focused on the "personal factor." In this special preview of the Spring 2008 issue of the Claremont Review of Books, James W. Ceaser examines the race so far and wonders what we can expect during the months ahead.For the Children
Over the past four decades, American adults have seemed more concerned with enjoying their own existence than with the generation and welfare of children, writes F. Carolyn Graglia in the Winter 2007/08 issue of the Claremont Review of Books. Kay Hymowitz's Marriage and Caste in America and David Blankenhorn's The Future of Marriage address the consequences of this failure to attend to nature's scheme.The Primaries
The Realist
Two recent books on the life and career of Henry Kissinger offer complementary (or divergent) views of the work of the former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State, writes Peter Josephson.The Industrious State
How is it that in the 19th century, England came to have dominion over so many lands and so many peoples, asks Arnold Kling.Loss Upon Loss
Virgil's Aeneid—a poem that requires of its readers something like the largeness of heart shown by its author and its hero—has found a most worthy translator in Robert Fagles, writes Anthony Esolen in the Winter 2007/08 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.Remembering William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925-2008)
All of us at the Claremont Institute are deeply saddened by the passing of our friend, William F. Buckley, Jr., the man who shaped the modern American conservative movement.
Audio from Bill Bennett's Morning in America:
• 
Download Here (mp3)
Senior Fellow Charles R. Kesler recalls Buckley's very early influence on his academic career.
Via National Review Online:
• WFB: A Celebration
A symposium with contributions by Washington Fellow William J. Bennett and Charles Kesler.
From the Claremont Institute archives:
• The Right Stuff by Michael M. Uhlmann
From the Summer 2005 Claremont Review of Books: The success of the conservative movement would have been unthinkable without the inspiration, verve, and genius of Bill Buckley, writes Uhlmann.
• A Life in Speeches by Charles R. Kesler
A review of Buckley's Let Us Talk of Many Things: The Collected Speeches.
• Wine With Lunch by William F. Buckley, Jr.
From the Fall 2000 Claremont Review of Books: Buckley on Wine.
• Amicus Brief by William F. Buckley, Jr.
From the Fall 2006 Claremont Review of Books: Buckley reviews Joseph Epstein's Friendship: An Exposé.
