John Gunther Dean’s career milestones sound almost like a recruiting ad for the Foreign Service. His action-packed memoir got me thinking: What if we Americans got the political leaders we wanted? Read more
Though less well known than 1990s spiritual blockbusters such as “Tuesdays with Morrie” or “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success,” Father Ronald Rolheiser’s “The Holy Longing” is not only simpler but also more practical and challenging. Read more
Pretty much every journalist and historian has asked, Who was Jim Jones? and How did he orchestrate the mass death of more than 900 Americans? John Peer Nugent’s “White Night” is the rare work that asks, Why didn’t the State Department or the Guyanese stop Jones? Read more
While lesser known than “Animal Farm” and “1984,” George Orwell’s 1936 story “Shooting An Elephant” is the clearest, most relevant expression of Orwell’s warning about the perils of dehumanization at the hands of political ideologies and systems other than Soviet Communism. Read more
Any fair-minded parsing of poll results and statistics shows support for overturning Roe v. Wade would be a lot more popular than media outlets would have us believe. Read more
Why did Russian leader Vladimir Putin order his country to invade Ukraine? The answer is more complicated than the standard view that he remains embittered by the collapse of the Soviet Union. You can find it in a series of interviews he gave after becoming Russia’s president. Read more
A couple of years ago, I got wise to an old truth: private virtue had public effects. This insight turned conventional wisdom upside down. Good character was more than an admirable quality. It could help bring justice to the abused and voiceless. Read more
Author John Carreyrou’s fairness toward Elizabeth Holmes is the defining feature of “Bad Blood.” It raises the stakes. The story is more than that of a corporate crook and fraudster. It’s also the story of a young woman who could have done good but did bad instead. Read more
