“To think I might have died without having read it.” Those were the words of the late, great William F. Buckley. He was referring to Moby Dick. Having read it after he’d turned 50, Buckley’s love of t...
Tag: book reviews
Will Guidara’s Inspiring and Excellent ‘Unreasonable Hospitality’
Back in the 1980s a music business anecdote that made the rounds was that arena rock band Van Halen had rather detailed requirements listed for each tour stop. This included a demand that there be no ...
Book Review: Nino Strachey’s ‘Young Bloomsbury’
“Those were the days.” Everyone has heard it, and most have said it. But were they? Particularly in the largely free parts of the world, today invariably exceeds yesterday. Looking back to 100 years a...
The Essential Dick Ebersol’s Excellent ‘From Saturday Night to Sunday Night’
On November 30, 1974 I attended my first college football game. It was Notre Dame vs. USC at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Notre Dame was up 24-6 early, only for USC to storm back and crush the Fighting I...
Alex Epstein’s Excellent and Essential ‘Fossil Future’
In his wonderful book American Happiness and Its Discontents, George Will wrote that Founding Father John Adams began each day with a tankard of beer. The anecdote read as incongruous. How could Adams...
John Talty’s Very Excellent ‘The Leadership Secrets Of Nick Saban’
The NFL is a copycat league, as are professional and collegiate sports leagues in general, and the surest evidence of this is the annual race to hire the assistants of successful head coaches. Bill Be...
Martin Sixsmith’s Brilliant ‘The War of Nerves’
At some point in every calendar year I re-read Cato Institute co-founder Ed Crane’s 1981 essay, “Fear and Loathing In the Soviet Union.” A recap of his visit to the communist country, it astounded for...
David Sokol and Adam Brandon’s ‘America In Perspective’
The question about whether America is in decline is arguably best answered by those who aren’t American. The reason for this is very simple: when all you know is the staggering abundance that defines ...
Bob Harig’s ‘Tiger & Phil’
Mitch Mustain, Whitney Lewis, and Lance Pavlas. What do the names mean to you? Most likely nothing, though if you’re a college football fan they likely ring a bell. All three were all-world college fo...
Dana Brown’s Entertaining and Insightful Memoir of Vanity Fair, ‘Dilettante.’
Upon return from a family vacation three summers ago, economist Ike Brannon remarked at a subsequent lunch about an individual at the resort who was almost literally covered in tattoos. This was an ex...
Stefan Al’s Thoroughly Excellent ‘Supertall’
In Michael Ovitz’s very excellent 2018 memoir (review here) Who Is Michael Ovitz, the entertainment legend provided fascinating insight into why CAA was much more than a talent agency. Arguably a majo...
Tina Brown’s Very Entertaining ‘The Palace Papers’
Two days before Prince William married Kate Middleton on April 29, 2011, John Berlau published an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal hailing Middleton as “The Entrepreneur’s Princess.” In Berlau...
Harald Jahner’s Fascinating and Depressing ‘Aftermath’
“I spent my career as an academic studying great depressions. I can tell you from history that if we don’t act in a big way, you can expect another great depression, and this time it’s going to be far...
Peter Ward’s ‘The Price of Immortality’
The late J.R. Richard was a Major League Baseball phenomenon of the 1970s for the Houston Astros. If the radar guns were accurate, no one’s fastball traveled faster than Richard’s. Where it perhaps ge...
Giles Milton’s Fascinating ‘Checkmate In Berlin’
“During those days he stood still for such disastrous fatuities as Franklin Roosevelt’s impetuous call for unconditional surrender, a rhetorical fillip which in the analysis of some military experts m...
Jimmy Soni’s Spellbinding and Essential Story of How PayPal Came to Be
Every so often Cato Institute co-founder Ed Crane reminisces about the early days of libertarianism, and in particular the make-up of the movement as gatherings began taking place. Though the lover of...
Nathan Lewis’s ‘The Magic Formula’
The economic discussion would be greatly improved if it were passably understood that what we call “the economy” isn’t some living, breathing machine that can be engineered. An “economy” is just peopl...
Steve Forbes, Nathan Lewis, and Elizabeth Ames’s ‘Inflation’
The Berenstain Bears is a collection of “First Time Books” with a devoted following among young kids, along with parents who used to be young, and who used to be devoted readers of the series. The boo...
Helen Rappaport’s Fascinating ‘After the Romanovs’
In 1981, Cato Institute co-founder Ed Crane traveled to the Soviet Union with his fellow co-founder, industrialist Charles Koch. Crane subsequently wrote a long-form essay about his visit that remains...
Matthew Hennessey’s Very Enjoyable “Visible Hand”
In his endlessly excellent 1981 book The Economy In Mind, the late, great Warren Brookes told the story of an economist clearing customs at JFK Airport in the malaise-ridden, late 1970s. The official ...