Joseph Bottum

Darfur is finally bubbling back up into the view of the American media. Yesterday, the UN issued its first sanctions over attacks in Sudan’s western region. Al Qaeda has named Darfur as a new battleground in its war against the West. The NATO meeting scheduled for Thursday has the . . . . Continue Reading »

There are pro-life arguments¯or perhaps that’s the wrong word. Talking points, maybe, or tropes or rhetorical gestures. Anyway, there are things one hears in pro-life presentations that I’ve never understood the force of. That many of the suffragettes and early feminists (and even . . . . Continue Reading »

A submission to F IRST T HINGS came across my desk recently. It was about the excesses of a women’s-studies department at a major American university, and I tried to read it. I really did. I mean, it’s my job to look carefully at all this stuff, but, somehow, I just couldn’t get . . . . Continue Reading »

If you look over in the left-hand column of this web page, you’ll find a link for this¯a notice that the magazine is looking to hire a new managing editor to replace the estimable Erik Ross, who has decided to try new horizons in Poland. If you’ve ever dreamed of working at F IRST . . . . Continue Reading »

It’s common among Catholic commentators to look back on the era from the late 1930s to the early 1960s and see a great time of conversions in America and England. There was something in the air that was drawing secularly important or promising people to the Church. The list is well known, and . . . . Continue Reading »

Muriel Spark is gone , dying on Thursday at age eighty-eight, the last representative of Great Britain’s high literary converts before Vatican II. There’s a revealing moment toward the end of her 1992 memoir of her early career, Curriculum Vitae . Times were hard for her in 1953. She . . . . Continue Reading »

On Saturday, a banquet was held in Washington, D.C., to mark the establishment of a new center for Thomistic studies¯a center named after America’s best-known Thomist, Ralph McInerny. It’s hard to imagine anyone more deserving of the honor. In a recent issue of F IRST T HINGS , . . . . Continue Reading »

An interesting note by Stephen Schwartz in the new issue of F IRST T HINGS takes up the troubles of Albania. The religious believers of Albania may have suffered more than those of any other nation in eastern Europe over the fifty years of Communist rule after World War II. The Stalinists were . . . . Continue Reading »

The Mad Scientists’ Club Purple House, 217 pages, $17.95 The New Adventure of the Mad Scientists’ Club Purple House, 210 pages, $17.95 The Big Kerplop! Purple House, 238 pages, $17.95 The Big Chunk of Ice Purple House, 288 pages, $18.95 By Bertrand R. Brinley There’s a kind of . . . . Continue Reading »

So, protestors have filled the streets of France , once again. Cars burned, buildings occupied, politicians scuttling for cover. Another day on the Champs Elysées. This time it was students complaining about a law that would have established a two-year trial period in which employers could . . . . Continue Reading »