Book Reviews

Misguided Democracy

by George Leef March 1, 2006

Attention Deficit Democracy by James Bovard (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006); 288 pages; $26.95. One of Winston Churchill’s most famous quips is that democracy is the worst form of government — except for all the others. The supposition behind the “except” clause is that ...

Book Review: Perilous Times

by George Leef January 2, 2006

Perilous Times — Free Speech in Wartime by Geoffrey R. Stone (Norton, 2004); 730 pages; $35. If it is true to say, as Randolph Bourne did, that war is the health of the state, it is equally true to say that war is the sickness of individual liberty. The ...

Book Review: Wilson’s War

by George Leef January 1, 2006

Wilson’s War: How Woodrow Wilson’s Great Blunder Led to Hitler, Lenin, Stalin & World War II by Jim Powell (Crown Forum, 2005); 352 pages; $27.50. Although most conventional liberal historians, blinded by their adulation for politicians who embrace “progressive” causes, continue to ...

Wartime Attacks on Civil Liberties

by George Leef December 1, 2005

Perilous Times — Free Speech in Wartime by Geoffrey R. Stone (Norton, 2004); 730 pages; $35. If it is true to say, as Randolph Bourne did, that war is the health of the state, it is equally true to say that war is the ...

Book Review: Reclaiming the American Revolution

by George Leef September 1, 2005

Reclaiming the American Revolution: The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and Their Legacy by William J. Watkins Jr. (Independent Institute, 2004); 236 pages; $39.95. How do you devise a system of limited government that actually works? It is easy enough to put words ...

Book Review: Rich Man’s War, Poor Man’s Fight

by George Leef July 1, 2005

Rich Man’s War, Poor Man’s Fight: Race, Class, and Power in the Rural South during the First World War by Jeanette Keith (University of North Carolina Press, 2004); 260 pages; $55.95 hardcover; $22.50 paperback. What little most Americans have heard about U.S. involvement in World War I is that U.S. ...

Book Review: Against Leviathan

by George Leef May 1, 2005

Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Society by Robert Higgs (Independent Institute, 2004); 405 pages; $18.95. Readers familiar with the writings of the 16th-century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes will immediately understand the thrust of this exceptional book. Hobbes attempted to justify an ...

Book Review: Christianity and War

by Anthony Gregory April 1, 2005

Christianity and War; And Other Essays against the Warfare State by Laurence M. Vance (Pensacola, Fla.: Vance Publications, 2005); 118 pages. When asked to name his favorite political philosopher in late 1999 during a debate with other Republicans in the campaign for the presidential nomination, George W. Bush named Jesus Christ. Bush’s ...

Book Review: Isabel Paterson and the Ideas of America

by Wendy McElroy March 30, 2005

Isabel Paterson and the Idea of America: The Woman and the Dynamo by Stephen Cox Some readers of Stephen Cox’s recently published biography, Isabel Paterson and the Idea of America: The Woman and the Dynamo, may succumb to the same temptation I did. I immediately scanned the index for references ...

Book Review: The Bush Betrayal

by Brigid ONeill February 1, 2005

The Bush Betrayal by James Bovard (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004); 336 pages; $26.95. The reelection of George Walker Bush rubs too much like the gruesome aftermath of a hit and run — made bearable only by our instinctual ability to self-medicate in numbness. For a first-stage coping mechanism — just ask the Sopranos psychiatrist — it ...

Book Review: Restoring the Lost Constitution

by George Leef January 1, 2005

Restoring the Lost Constitution —The Presumption of Liberty by Randy E. Barnett (Princeton University Press, 2004); 366 pages; $32.50 Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words. The dust jacket of this superlative book shows the first page of the U.S. Constitution with numerous holes in it, as if words and passages had been cut out — a ...

Book Review: Bad Trip

by Paul Armentano December 1, 2004

Bad Trip: How the War against Drugs Is Destroying America by Joel Miller (Nashville: WorldNet Daily Books); 242 pages; $24.99. The self-proclaimed toughest cop in America, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, brandishes a badge and a gun, and drives a custom-painted U.S. Army tank. “We are proud to have the ultimate weapon in the war on drugs in our ...