The Bookmonger

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How can orthodox Christians flourish in a hostile modern world? Rod Dreher proposes a way in The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Dreher pitches his idea, explains its inspiration, and insists that he doesn’t mean conservatives should flock to monasteries. He also tells us whether he still considers himself a “crunchy con”–the subject of his first book.

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Confronted by Russian aggression, Islamic terrorism, and rising nationalism, Europe is in an existential crisis, says James Kirchick, author of The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues, and the Coming Dark Age.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Kirchick explains why Americans must care more about the continent’s fate as well as which threat worries him the most. Then he describes a worst-case scenario for the future of Europe.

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This big book of nearly 1,200 pages includes everything from Beowulf’s time–and that’s why they call it The Complete Old English Poems, translated by Craig Williamson and with an introduction by Tom Shippey.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Shippey explains why this old literature is still worth reading and how it influenced J.R.R. Tolkien. He also discusses the Anglo-Saxon fondness for riddles and describes the paradox of how he became both a scholar of these aged works as well as the Wall Street Journal’s science-fiction book critic.

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It’s time to rediscover Booker T. Washington, says Kenneth M. Hamilton, author of Booker T. Washington in American Memory.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Hamilton explains why Washington was the most important and influential African American of his time, why so many people mourned his death, why his reputation recently has fallen on hard times–and how we may need his message now more than ever.

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How should Americans love their country? Steven F. Hayward offers answers in Patriotism Is Not Enough: Harry Jaffa, Walter Berns, and the Arguments that Redefined America.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Hayward explains the important of Jaffa and Berns, describes why they clashed, and reveals how their disputes shaped the course of modern conservative thought. He also gives a refreshingly brief answer to a vexing question: What’s a Straussian?

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American culture is like an open sewer, spewing waste and corrupting everything it touches, says Anthony Esolen, author of Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Esolen describes the decay of American civilization, why children should play outside more, and how we must recover a proper sense of manhood and womanhood. He ends on a hopeful note, offering advice on how to begin to recover what we’ve lost.

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What’s so bad about Common Core? Joy Pullmann explains in her new book, The Education Invasion: How Common Core Fights Parents for Control of American Kids.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Pullmann explains why “accountability” and “standards” are so often meaningless buzzwords, how parents can tell if a school is good, and what the Trump administration should do to improve schooling.

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What’s the case for classical studies in the 21st century? Eric Adler offers an answer in Classics, the Culture Wars, and Beyond.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Adler says that there’s more value in the study of classics than most people realize, but that scholars often don’t know how to respond to public interest in their field. He also describes the reputation of Victor Davis Hanson, probably the best-known classicist in the United States but also a controversial figure among his academic peers.

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What does Alexis de Tocqueville have to say about 21st-century America? Enough to fill a new book, according to James Poulos, author of The Art of Being Free: How Alexis de Tocqueville Can Save Us from Ourselves.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Poulos explains why Tocqueville looms so large in the American mind, how he first came to know this 19th-century writer, and what advice Tocqueville would give to President Trump.

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Edward Jay Epstein says he hasn’t written a “whodunit” but rather a “howdunit,” in How America Lost Its Secrets: Edward Snowden, the Man and the Theft.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Epstein discusses whether Snowden is a whistle-blowing idealist or a traitor to his country. He also describes the one question he would love to pose to the man who now lives somewhere in Russia, and suggests that there’s a lesson in all of this for President Trump.

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