The Claremont Review of Books, Volume VI, Number 1, Winter 2005/06.

Notable Essays:

• Philosophy in Democratic Times by Algis Valiunas.
  On George Santayana.


• The Logic of the "Peace Process" by Angelo M. Codevilla.
  The United States has prevented the majority Shia and Kurds from forcefully dealing with the Bathist Sunni minority, thus encouraging the Sunni instigated Iraqi civil war. Without a decisive victory over the Sunnis there can be no peace in Iraq. Unfortunately, USA policy makers have no stomach for the kind of victory that would ensure pease.
  Note: Codevilla is the author of No Victory, No Peace.

A. R. (Andrew Robert) Burn.
The Persian Wars: The Greeks and the Defence of the West, c. 546 - 478 B.C.
London: The Folio Society, 2002.

Previously published as:
Persia and the Greeks: The Defence of the West, c. 546 - 478 B.C., Second Edition. London: Gerald Duckworth and Co., Ltd., 1984.
American Edition: Stanford University Press, 1984 (Amazon).

This book covers mostly the same period and events in Greek history as Herodotus (less Egypt and Scythia); thus I found it an excellent sequel to reading Herodotus. In many ways the book is a commentary on and updating of Herodotus, using all the resources of history and archeology accumulated since the time of Herodotus.

The Claremont Review of Books, Volume V, Number 3, Summer 2005.

Notable Essays:

• Between Idealism and Realism by Adam Wolfson.
  A good essay on President Bush's foreign policy.


• The Long Detour by William A. Rusher.
  A survey of the rise of the Conservative movement in 20th century American politics. It describes how Richard Nixon, an opportunist who opposed the Conservatives, delayed the Conservative electoral triumph from 1968 until 1980.

Theodore Dalrymple (psuedonym of Anthony Daniels).
Life At the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass.
Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher, 2001.

The denial of individual responsibility and free will yields a rotten fruit when those ideas, promulgated by intellectuals (cultural leaders such as teachers) and practiced by the functionaries of the welfare state, are adopted by the weakest members of society (namely the poor and unintelligent, or merely ignorant). The excellent essays comprising this book arose from Dalrymple's experience as a physician/psychiatrist in Birmingham, England and were originally published in City Journal.

Links to Book Reviews and Other Essays by Dalrymple:

• Manhattan Institute (Links to Book Reviews on the left side of this page.)


• Brothers Judd (Links to Book Reviews and other Dalrymple essays at the bottom of this page.)


• The Social Affairs Unit (A London public policy research group.)


• Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher, 2005. (A more recent collection of his City Journal essays.)

Policy Review, Number 134, December 2005/January 2006.

Notable Essays:

• China’s Quest for Asia by Dana Dillon and John J. Tkacik Jr.
  Describes China's increasingly aggressive foreign policy in which China uses economic bargaining to coerce Southeast Asian nations to align with China and (perhaps) against the United States. Part of this realignment is clearly due to the United States' neglect of diplomatic relations with Southeast Asian nations.


• Making Democracy Stick by Gerard Alexander.
  One of many essays published recently in foreign policy journals discussing the problems of exporting democratic government to regions with historically authoritarian cultural traditions. (See, for example, The National Interest: here, here; and Foreign Affairs: here, here.)