The American Interest

Relevant Reading:

Time and Power: Visions of History in German Politics, from the Thirty Years’ War to the Third Reich

“As gravity bends light, so power bends time,” writes renowned historian Christopher Clark in his ambitious new book Time and Power: Visions of History in German Politics, from the Thirty Years’ War to the Third Reich.

Looking at four successive regimes in four successive epochs in one country, Clark describes how individual leaders are both shaped by their moment, and how their understanding of their circumstances allows them to sculpt their destiny and legacy.

Christopher Clark is the Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge, and Richard Aldous is the Eugene Meyer Professor of British History and Literature at Bard College. Don’t miss this blockbuster episode, and be sure to follow @aminterest on Twitter.

Relevant Reading:

Science and the Good: The Tragic Quest for the Foundations of Morality

Relevant Listening:

TAI Podcast, Episode 210: Favorite Books of 2018

Science can tell us much about the natural world, but can it tell us how to live a good life? In their new book Science and the Good: The Tragic Quest for the Foundations of Morality, James Davison Hunter and Paul Nedelisky argue no.

Critiquing what they term the “new moral science,” Hunter and Nedelisky argue that today’s attempts to find a scientific basis for morality are the latest failed effort in a 400-year quest. More than that, the authors argue, today’s variant of the tradition bends toward a form of moral nihilism and social engineering.

James Davison Hunter is the LaBrosse-Levinson Distinguished Professor of Religion, Culture, and Social Theory at the University of Virginia; Paul Nedelisky is Junior Fellow at the University’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. This week, both join Richard Aldous on the podcast to discuss their book, which we recently named one of our favorites of 2018. Be sure to tune in!

Relevant Reading:

The Lessons of Tragedy: Statecraft and World Order

How Woodrow Wilson Lost the Peace

This year marks the centenary of Versailles, the peace treaty widely derided for failing to resolve—and indeed exacerbating—the geopolitical tensions that had plunged Europe into war. Today, at a time of geopolitical crackup and fears of a fading “liberal international order,” what lessons can we learn from that past?

In their new book The Lessons of Tragedy: Statecraft and World Order, Hal Brands and Charles Edel take the long view. Rooting their arguments in the ancient Greeks and their tragic vision of history, Brands and Edel look at cases where leaders succeeded or failed in erecting a sustainable world order—and argue that American leaders must recover a tragic sensibility to rise to the occasion today.

This week, Hal Brands joins Richard Aldous on the podcast to discuss the book. Be sure to tune in, and don’t forget to read the excerpt we recently published in our pages. You can also follow @aminterest, @HalBrands and @CharlesEdel on Twitter.

Relevant Reading:

Churchill: Walking with Destiny

Is This the Best One-Volume Biography of Churchill Yet Written?

Winston Churchill is today one of the most admired leaders in world history—for many, indeed, the finest statesman of the 20th century. Yet in his own time, Churchill was a man of great controversy and contradiction: an aristocrat by birth and disposition who was nonetheless looked down upon for his half-American ancestry; a brilliant wartime leader who spent years defined by his defeat at Gallipoli; a pugnacious bomb-thrower who rose to be a unifying leader in wartime, in a position that he might never have attained during peace.

Andrew Roberts, the accomplished British historian, is the latest to take on Churchill’s life in his monumental new biography Churchill: Walking with Destiny. Using new archival sources that had been unavailable to previous biographers, Roberts gives us the definitive portrait of Britain’s wartime leader, in what our own Richard Aldous says “must surely be the best single-volume biography of Churchill yet written.”

Tune in this week as Richard and Andrew discuss the life and legacy of Winston Churchill. And don’t forget to follow @aminterest and Andrew Roberts (@aroberts_andrew) on Twitter.

Relevant Reading:

Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House

The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World

Grant

Science and the Good: The Tragic Quest for the Foundations of Morality

Relevant Listening:

TAI Podcast, Episode 204: The Immigration Impasse

After a year’s worth of author interviews, the podcast is back with a special holiday episode to send off 2018. This week, Richard Aldous invites TAI staff and contributors—Karina Orlova, Damir Marusic, Sean Keeley, and Aaron Sibarium—to discuss the most interesting books they read in 2018.

Karina’s pick is Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury, the sensationalist account of President Trump’s first year in the White House that scandalized Washington and stirred a lively debate about journalistic ethics. Damir discusses The Jungle Grows Back by Robert Kagan, in which a leading neocon reassesses America’s global role in the age of Trump. Sean’s pick is Grant, Ron Chernow’s acclaimed biography of the Civil War hero and 18th U.S. President. And Aaron looks at James Davison Hunter and Paul Nedelisky’s Science and the Good, which argues against the age-long quest to find a scientific basis of morality.

Be sure to also check out Richard’s book pick for 2018: Reihan Salam’s Melting Pot or Civil War? A Son of Immigrants Makes the Case Against Open Borders. You can also listen to Richard’s interview with Reihan from our podcast in October.

We’ll be back in the New Year, but in the meantime do subscribe to us on iTunes, where you can leave a review. You can also find us on Twitter, at @aminterest and our individual accounts: Executive Editor Damir Marusic (@dmarusic), contributing writer Karina Orlova (@OrlovaKarine), and assistant editors Sean Keeley (@seankeeley) and Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium).

Relevant Reading:

A Savage Order: How the World’s Deadliest Countries Can Forge a Path to Security

Some of the world’s deadliest countries are weak democracies plagued by internal violence: gang warfare, organized crime, state repressions, and ordinary homicide. These problems can seem intractable, and a function of weak states above all else. In fact, Rachel Kleinfeld argues in her new book A Savage Order, the story is more complicated—but there is also a viable path to recovery.

Drawing on original field research and historical lessons from Colombia, Sicily, the Republic of Georgia, and the American South, Kleinfeld explains how countries can “decivilize” and create conditions that normalize violence, as social trust frays and leaders embrace violent tactics to perpetuate their rule. She also shows how countries can overcome such legacies of violence, and restore broad-based social trust.

Rachel Kleinfeld is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and she joins Richard Aldous on the podcast this week to discuss the book. Be sure to tune in, and don’t forget to follow @aminterest and @RachelKleinfeld on Twitter.